Identification and characterization of stress response pathways in plants

• Applicant: Dr. Sascha Biedermann
• Subject Area: Plant Cell and Developmental Biology ; Plant Physiology
• Term: from 2012 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 230708886

The maintenance of their genome integrity is one of the major challenges for living organisms. Major threats of genome integrity arise from both intracellular processes as well as environmental influences. The resulting damage requires a constant DNA repair. Of central importance is the precisely controlled cell cycle arrest after DNA lesions and re-initiation of the cell cycle after successful repair. Despite remarkable progress in the elucidation of the plant cell cycle during the last few years, still very little is known how the cell cycle is controlled upon DNA damage in plants. Moreover, the host laboratory could recently show that the major control mechanism of cell cycle arrest after DNA damage in animals is not conserved in the flowering plant Arabidopsis. Therefore, regulatory mechanisms and pathways, which control the cell cycle after DNA damage in Arabidopsis thaliana will be identified. To this end, the regulation of the core cell cycle machinery, especially cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), cyclins and CDK inhibitors, will be analyzed with particular focus on their post-translational control and protein dynamics. In parallel, new regulators of cell cycle arrest will be identified in an unbiased manner by performing a mutagenesis screen. By these two complementary approaches, a solid base for a long-term carrier in plant sciences will be achieved. Future development will then include a transfer of the here-obtained results into breeding and the generation of stress-tolerant crop species.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: France
• Host: Professor Dr. Arp Schnittger