ABC - Department for Plant Biotechnology - Plant Stress Biology group

Research area

Temperature stress is considered to be one of the major stresses on crops that adversely affects the distribution and productivity of agriculturally important plants worldwide. Cells exposed to high temperatures activate heat shock responses which consists of a series of dramatic biochemical and physiological changes that results in a reprioritization of cell physiology to support survival. Besides, heat stress may cause lasting effects that may alter development and reproduction in the post-stress period. Our group investigates the heat stress responses and post-stress development in the Arabidopsis thaliana model and the important crop species Brassica napus.

Projects

The role of long non-coding RNAs during heat-stress response in plants

Non-protein coding genes (long non-coding RNAs, lncRNAs) were shown to be key players involved in different stress responses both in animals and plants. In animal systems lncRNAs were specifically involved in regulation of different aspects of HSR. In spite of many lncRNAs have be identified in plants, only a few lncRNAs are functionally and mechanistically characterized. In the present programme we propose to understand the roles of lncRNAs in HSR in Arabidopsis thaliana plants and its close relative Brassica napus. We hope that our findings in Arabidopsis model and the agriculturally important crop Brassica napus will contribute to the development of heat-tolerant plants that may have an immense significance in the light of global warming and climate change. Furthermore, we want to understand the mechanistic mode of lncRNAs‘ activity. lncRNAs were involved in many biological processes including development, stress responses or cancer at multiple levels (epigenetic, transcriptional and post-transcriptional). We believe that our findings can extend significantly the knowledge on lncRNA functions in general, which may be relevant in all eukaryots.

The project is funded by NKFI K115934 grant.

Transcriptional and epigenetic regulation during heat stress in Brassicaceae

In the present programme we propose to uncover the components of heat stress-specific Pol II transcriptional complex and understand its regulation during heat stress response in a combined study on Brassica napus crop and Arabidopsis thaliana model. Specific aims of our project are (i) uncover central heat stress factor HSFA1 and A2 paralogs’ regulations and roles in B. napus, (ii) search and show biological relevance of heat stress-specific transcriptional complex co-factors in both A. thaliana and B. napus and (iii) uncover epigenetic regulators required for transcriptional changes driven by HSFs during heat stress. As a side-project, we will develop a heat stress phenotypic screen for B. napus, and we will implement CRISPR technology on B. napus to generate mutants, complementation and overexpressor transgenic lines. These lines will help us to understand molecular mechanisms and epistatic interactions in B. napus species.

We hope that our findings will contribute significantly to basic understanding of heat stress response and will accelerate the development of heat-tolerant plants that may have an immense significance in the light of climate change.

The project is funded by NKFI K129283 grant.

 

Staff

Tibor Levente Csorba PhD
Munkakör: csoportvezető, tudományos főmunkatárs
Munkavégzés helye: 2100 Gödöllő, Szent-Györgyi Albert utca 4.
Telephone: +36 28526154
Fax: +36 28526101
Mobil: +36 704079601
E-mail: csorba.tibor[at]abc.naik.hu
Anita Kurilla
Munkakör: Önkéntes, tudományos segédmunkatárs
Munkavégzés helye: 2100 Gödöllő, Szent-Györgyi Albert utca 4.
Telephone: +36 28526194
Fax: +36 28526101
Mobil: +36 307188220
E-mail: kurilla.anita[at]abc.naik.hu
István Szádeczky-Kardoss
Munkakör: tudományos segédmunkatárs
Munkavégzés helye: 2100 Gödöllő, Szent-Györgyi Albert utca 4.
Telephone: +36 28526154
Fax: +36 28526101
E-mail: szadeczky.kardoss.istvan[at]abc.naik.hu

Publications

Publications:
 

Hamar É, Szaker HM, Kis A, Dalmadi Á, Miloro F, Szittya G, Taller J, Gyula P, Csorba T, Havelda Z. (2020) Genome-Wide Identification of RNA Silencing-Related Genes and Their Expressional Analysis in Response to Heat Stress in Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Biomolecules. 2020 Jun 18;10(6):E929. doi: 10.3390/biom10060929.

Szaker H.M., Gyula P., Szittya G., Csorba T. (2020) Regulation of High-Temperature Stress Response by Small RNAs. In: Miguel C., Dalmay T., Chaves I. (eds) Plant microRNAs. Concepts and Strategies in Plant Sciences. Springer, Cham

Szaker HM, Darkó É, Medzihradszky A, Janda T, Liu HC, Charng YY, Csorba T, (2019) miR824/AGAMOUS-LIKE16 Module Integrates Recurring Environmental Heat Stress Changes to Fine-Tune Poststress Development, Front Plant Sci. 2019 Nov 25;10:1454. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.01454. eCollection 2019.

 

Events

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