Award details

Calcium signal transduction during nodulation

Reference	BBS/E/J/0000A246
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Giles Oldroyd
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor J Downie
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	139,952
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/09/2005
End date	07/01/2009
Duration	40 months

Abstract

Calcium is vital for living organisms and fulfils many roles within cells. However, calcium is quite toxic and therefore cells actively move calcium outside or into compartments within the cell. For this reason calcium levels are maintained at a low concentration in the body of the cell. Calcium has evolved as a signal inside the cell that responds to the perception of many different molecules including human hormones. Calcium can be released from the cellular compartments where calcium levels are high. This is achieved by the opening of calcium channels on membranes that separate the body of the cell from these internal compartments. This release of calcium into the cytoplasm has many different patterns, with the most complex pattern being repetitive oscillations in cytoplasmic calcium, called calcium spiking. A family of plants form a beneficial interaction with a class of bacteria called rhizobia. This interaction is useful to the plant since the bacteria provide nitrogen an important nutrient for protein production in return the plant provides the bacteria with sugars. This 'symbiotic' interaction is particularly important in agriculture as it helps to enrich the soil with nitrogen, which is important for growth of crop plants. An increase in the use of legumes to enrich the soil instead of fertilisers will greatly reduce the levels of pollution caused by fertilisers washing into our rivers and streams. In order to establish the symbiotic interaction the legume plant must recognise the presence of the rhizobial bacteria. This is achieved through a signalling molecule released from the bacteria a major feature of the plant's perception of the bacterial signalling molecule is the activation of calcium spiking. We recently discovered two genes that are involved in the activation of plant responses by calcium spiking. This proposal studies how these genes function in perceiving calcium spiking how they are then able to induce the plant responses.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	Microbiology, Plant Science, Soil Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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