Uncovering the signaling roles of inositol polyphosphates in plant growth and development

Inositol polyphosphates (InsPs), particularly their pyrophosphate derivatives (PP-InsPs), are recently characterized as signaling molecules present in all eukaryotes. Extensive research has been conducted on the PP-InsP pathway revealing its impacts on organogenesis and various diseases such as cancer metastasis, obesity, and diabetes. Cellular PP-InsPs exist in low concentrations, complex isoforms, and turnover fast, therefore, making them a real challenge to monitor and to analyze. This restricts the PP-InsP study especially on defining their specific roles or putatively variable distribution among cells/tissues. To solve the problem, this project aims to create cellular reporters for monitoring PP-InsPs in real-time. Given the PP-InsP pathway is conserved, the development of the PP-InsP sensors in plants will have a broader impact on the study of to the fundamental characteristics of PP-InsP signaling in animals. For example, the transfer of the PP-InsP reporters to cancer cell lines for possibility to use it for better understanding of PP-InsP-regulated cancer metastasis in the future.