题目：Glucose-driven TOR-FIE-PRC2 signalling controls plant development

主讲：叶瑞强 研究员 （中国科学院分子植物科学卓越创新中心）

时间：9月22日（周四）10:20-11:20

地点：腾讯会议号 699 989 865   

报告摘要：Nutrients and energy have emerged as central modulators of developmental programs in plants and animals. The evolutionarily conserved target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase is a master integrator of nutrient and energy signalling that controls growth. Despite its key regulatory roles in translation, proliferation, metabolism, and autophagy, little is known about how TOR shapes developmental transitions and differentiation. We show that glucose-activated TOR kinase controls genome-wide histone H3 trimethylation at K27 (H3K27me3) in Arabidopsis thaliana, which regulates cell fate and development. We identify FERTILIZATION-INDEPENDENT ENDOSPERM (FIE), an indispensable component of Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), which catalyzes H3K27me3, as a TOR target. Direct phosphorylation by TOR promotes the dynamic translocation of FIE from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Mutation of the phosphorylation site on FIE abrogates the global H3K27me3 landscape, reprograms the transcriptome and disrupts organogenesis in plants.  Moreover, glucose-TOR-FIE-PRC2 signalling modulates vernalization-induced floral transition. We propose that this signalling axis serves as a nutritional checkpoint leading to epigenetic silencing of key transcription factor genes that specify stem cell destiny in shoot and root meristems and control leaf, flower and silique patterning, branching, and vegetative-to-reproduction transition. Our findings reveal a fundamental mechanism of nutrient signalling in direct epigenome reprogramming, with broad relevance for the developmental control of multicellular organisms.

个人简介：叶瑞强，中国科学院分子植物科学卓越创新中心研究员、博士生导师。2009年毕业于武汉大学，获生物学学士学位。2014年毕业于浙江大学，获生化与分子生物学博士学位。博士期间于北京生命科学研究所和清华大学联合培养，从事植物小RNA的鉴定和作用机制的研究。2015年至2022年于美国哈佛医学院/麻省总医院从事博士后研究。已经在Nature、Molecular Cell、Plant Cell、Elife等高影响力期刊发表多篇研究论文。2022年7月加入中科院分子植物卓越中心，组建植物营养信号课题组。以拟南芥为模式植物，结合水稻，大豆等农作物，主要探究以下科学问题：(1) 植物如何通过雷帕霉素靶蛋白TOR感知和响应碳氮营养信号；（2）营养信号如何调控植物生长、发育和代谢通路；（3）植物表观遗传信息如何动态响应营养和逆境胁迫；（4）开发操纵营养信号通路的合成生物学工具。服务于解决植物碳氮高效利用，增强植物碳汇效率等重要问题。