reSGulating · Functional analysis of Stress Granules formation in plant adaptation to stress
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-04-01 → 2019-03-31
- EU contribution
- €170,122
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Functional analysis of Stress Granules formation in plant adaptation to stress
Stress adaptation is crucial for organism survival and is one of the driving forces of biological evolution. Plants are sessile organisms and must therefore continuously cope with various types of stresses imposed by abiotic factors (temperature, light, availability of water, etc.) and pathogens. It is very well documented that these stress-related alterations can have a high impact on crop productivity, limiting yield and resulting in unacceptable economic losses. Therefore, understanding the dynamics and evolution of plant stress response is of fundamental importance as these conditions impact agricultural yield, which is essential to sustain our society. One of the evolutionarily-conserved stress responses that plants share with other eukaryotes is a global shutdown and reprogramming of protein synthesis. This mechanism prevents unnecessary energy expenditures at the times of stress and ensures that only specific proteins vital for stress recovery are produced, minimizing stress-related damage and promoting cell survival. At the cellular level, this response is associated with the formation in the cytoplasm of the membraneless organelles called “stress granules” (SGs). These organelles are assemblies of untranslating messenger ribonucleoproteins (mRNPs) composed of mRNAs stalled in translation initiation and a diverse repertoire of proteins. Research on plant SGs is still in its infancy. In plants, the current knowledge of SG composition and function as well as their assembly requirements and regulation through stress-activated signaling pathways remain totally unknown. More importantly, it is unclear how SGs work and to what extent they can affect stress resistance. In this context, this project aims to better understand the fundamental function of SGs in the regulation of plant response to stress using the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Arabidopsis as model organisms. To achieve these general goals, a multidisciplinary approach including cell and molecular biology, genetic, physiological and bioinformatics techniques, were implemented in order to evaluate four major Aims.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Environmental stresses are the primary causes of crop loss worldwide, reducing average yields for most major crop plants by more than 50%. To get an optimal adaptation to environmental threats, plants have evolved a variety of complex and efficient mechanisms of resistance, including compartmentalization of mRNAs and proteins in cytoplasmic structures known as Stress Granules (SGs). In these, mRNA molecules are stored, degraded or kept silent in order to prevent energy expenditure on producing useless proteins, promoting thus the translation of specific stress-responsive genes that lead to the recovery from stress. Despite their importance in cell fitness, the overall composition of SGs, as well as their assembly requirements and regulation remain largely unknown. Although SGs have been found to be evolutionary conserved between species, the current knowledge of how plant SGs can regulate and modulate the response to stress is still limited. The overall objective of this proposal is to increase our understanding of the fundamental function of SGs on the regulation of plant response to stress. To this end, a compendium of methodologies including genetic and cell biology will be implemented in order to identify and characterize mutants impaired in SGs formation, taking advantage of well-established photosynthetic model systems such as Arabidopsis thaliana and the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Given that autophagy is a core mechanism that governs the regulation of SGs formation, disassembly or clearance in animal and yeast models, this molecular link will be studied in higher plants. It is anticipated that implementation of this project will provide novel insights into SGs biology, helping to enhance our knowledge on the modulation of stress responses. Besides, the proposed project is endowed of solid formative contents that will strengthen my previous experience, boosting my future scientific career and paving the way for closer scientific collaborations.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS · MadridCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union