Project Details
Projekt
FOR 804: Retrograde Signalling in Plants
Subject Area
Biology
Term
from 2007 to 2018
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 29017492
The term retrograde signalling in plant sciences is broadly defined as outward-directed information of plastids reporting on changes in their functional (e.g. developmental, metabolic or energetic) state and leading to altered expression of nuclear genes. Thus retrograde signalling is opposite in direction to the more familiar anterograde regulation (i.e. signalling from the nucleus to the organelles). Genetic, physiological and transcriptomic studies show the existence of various retrograde signalling pathways, by which the chloroplast (as well as the mitochondrion) modifies expression strength of nuclear genes and elicits specific physiological and developmental responses.
It is widely accepted that these pathways are part of a complex signalling network that links the functional and physiological state of the chloroplast to the activities in the nucleus. However,
(1) only a small number of signalling components could be tentatively identified so far,
(2) knowledge of the transcriptome response controlled by retrograde signals is incomplete and
(3) regulatory cis- and trans-factors have remained largely unknown.
The unifying goal of the Research Unit is to dissect the intracellular regulatory network, to which retrograde signals contribute and to unravel the elements and the crosstalk of the various signalling pathways from plastids to the nucleus. This will be achieved by identifying and validating
(1) signalling components of the different communication pathways between plastids and the nucleus and
(2) nuclear target genes of plastid signals and their regulatory promoter elements.
It is widely accepted that these pathways are part of a complex signalling network that links the functional and physiological state of the chloroplast to the activities in the nucleus. However,
(1) only a small number of signalling components could be tentatively identified so far,
(2) knowledge of the transcriptome response controlled by retrograde signals is incomplete and
(3) regulatory cis- and trans-factors have remained largely unknown.
The unifying goal of the Research Unit is to dissect the intracellular regulatory network, to which retrograde signals contribute and to unravel the elements and the crosstalk of the various signalling pathways from plastids to the nucleus. This will be achieved by identifying and validating
(1) signalling components of the different communication pathways between plastids and the nucleus and
(2) nuclear target genes of plastid signals and their regulatory promoter elements.
DFG Programme
Research Units
International Connection
France
Projects
- Arabidopsis mutants impaired in primary metabolism as tools to study retrograde signaling mechanisms (Applicant Häusler, Rainer E. )
- Central Task (Applicant Grimm, Bernhard )
- Cross-talk between redox, metabolic and hormonal retrograde chloroplast signals in the expressional regulation of nuclear encoded plastid proteins (Applicant Dietz, Karl-Josef )
- Dissection of the tetrapyrrole-mediated signaling pathway: Identification of components involved in signal transduction and of target genes (Applicant Grimm, Bernhard )
- Genetic Dissection of Organellar-Gene-Expression (OGE)-Dependent Retrograde Signaling in Arabidopsis (Applicant Leister, Dario )
- Global analysis of transcriptional regulatory networks in retrograde signaling (Applicant Mayer, Klaus F.X. )
- Intersystem photosynthetic redox signals in retrograde chloroplast-to-nucleus communication of higher plant cells (Applicant Pfannschmidt, Thomas )
- Plastid translation and plant development (Applicant Bock, Ralph )
Spokesperson
Professor Dr. Bernhard Grimm
