In June 2023, the Ministry of Education issued an award certificate for the Excellent Scientific Research Achievement Award (Science and Technology) of Universities. A research project entitled "Brassinosteroid Signal Transduction Network and Its Multiple Mechanisms for Regulating Plant Growth and Development" won the 2022 Ministry of Education Excellent Scientific Research Achievement Award - Second Prize of Natural Science Award.

Award Name: Brassinosteroid Signal Transduction Network and Its Multiple Mechanisms Regulating Plant Growth and Development

Institution: Fudan University

Contributors: Wang Xuelu, Wang Haijiao, Jiang Jianjun, Zhang Chi, Cheng Yinwei, Yang Mengran, Zhu Wenjiao

Project Description:

Phytohormones are trace chemical substances produced in plants, which play an important role in regulating growth and development. Among them, the plant hormone brassinosteroid (BR) is a kind of hormones that promotes plant growth and development. It regulates many aspects of plant growth and development through signal transduction. The representative achievements of this project aim at the key scientific questions of how BR conducts efficient signal transduction and specifically regulates different growth and development processes. By using a variety of biological methods and innovative ideas, and has achieved a series of original scientific discoveries. (1) Discovered the dual function of the BR receptor regulatory protein BKI1, revealed the molecular mechanism of the receptor BRI1 specifically transmitting BR signals, and established a non-canonical rapid signal transduction pathway from BR receptors to transcription factors (2011, Developmental Cell). (2) Revealed that the downstream core transcription factor BES1 plays a major role and has a new transcript BES1-L with stronger functions, which resolved the long-standing controversy on the function and localization of BES1 (2015, Plant Cell); discovered The mechanism by which light signals regulate the stability of BES1 protein through E3 ubiquitin ligase SINATs, revealling a new mechanism by which light and plant hormones jointly regulate photomorphogenesis (2017, Developmental Cell). (3) Discovered and elucidated the mechanism by which BR specifically regulates different growth and development at multiple levels through different signal transduction links: the mechanism of direct regulation of male fertility through the downstream core transcription factor BES1 (2010, PNAS); Genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the specific regulation of root hair development by protein kinase BIN2 (2014, eLife). 

These achievements provide a new model for the molecular mechanism of hormone regulation of plant growth and development, a theoretical basis for analyzing the complexity of plant growth and development regulation, and important basis for designing and improving important traits such as fertility, plant height, and drought resistance of crops.