近年全球均溫不斷上升，在全球暖化的威脅下，作物在生長時期就不斷的面臨高溫的挑戰，使得生長受抑制，嚴重時甚至發生細胞死亡，並且伴隨著作物產量的減少。因此，如何提升作物產量的研究一直都是個重要的議題。在高溫(30℃~40℃)環境下，C4植物的光合作用速率約為C3植物的2~3倍，若能利用C4光合作用機制提高C3作物產量，將可降低溫室效應對糧食作物的衝擊。在C3植物演化成C4植物的過程中，葉子花環結構是一個關鍵的步驟。前人研究中指出玉米SCARECROW (ZmSCR) 與 SHORTROOT（ZmSHR）是C4植物花環結構發育的關鍵決定因子。近年來次世代定序技術與生物資訊技術日漸成熟，我利用玉米發育葉子轉錄基因體所建立之基因共表達網絡預測出了ZmSCR上游調控轉錄因子。並加入了已知玉米轉錄因子結合序列資訊之輔助，來增加這些上游調控轉錄因子之可信度。對於被挑選出之轉錄因子，我將利用即時聚合酶鏈鎖反應判斷預測基因是否與ZmSCR共表現，並利用電泳膠遲緩分析，來證實這些轉錄因子是否會辨識結合ZmSCR啟動子序列。我會將挑選出之轉錄因子表現在水稻中，來確認被我們挑選出之ZmSCR之上游調控轉錄因子是否可以幫助水稻增加產量。此計畫希望能藉由玉米轉錄因子來增加水稻產量，再進一步應用到更多作物上以減緩溫室效應對作物生長的影響。
The world’s average temperature continuously rises. Either high day or high night temperature conditions negatively affects plant growth and development, and even causes cell death and reduces crop yield. Thus, yield improvement under high temperature conditions has been an important issue. C4 plants almost never saturate with light under high temperature conditions (30℃~40℃) much outperform C3 plants. If we can insert the C4 photosynthetic pathway into C3 crops, we can increase the yield of C3 crops, and reduce the impact of the greenhouse effect on food needs. The key steps of the evolution from C3 photosynthesis to C4 photosynthesis is Kranz anatomy structure. Previous study suggest that maize SCARECROW (ZmSCR) and SHORTROOT（ZmSHR）are key genes in maize Kranz anatomy structure development. However, the upstream regulator of ZmSCR is large unknow. Thanks for the improvement of next generation sequencing and bioinformatics analysis tools, I used available maize transcriptomes to find out coexpressed transcription factor (TF) genes with ZmSCR during maize leaf development. In addition, I also applied the known TF-TFBS pairs to predict TF binding sites (TFBSs) and their cognate TFs in maize. I will use the real time PCR to validate the expression profile of ZmSCR and selected TFs. Moreover, I will use the electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) to validate the TFs with known TFBSs that are present in the SCR promoter. I will create a transgenic rice plant with the TF to confirm whether the ZmSCR upstream regulatory TF can help rice increase production. Further, this investigate will be applied to researches of other crops to slowdown the negative impacts caused by greenhouse effects.
