Project Details
Projekt
Evolution of plant calcium and electrical signaling networks during the conquest of land
Subject Area
Plant Biochemistry and Biophysics
Biophysics
Biophysics
Term
from 2020 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 440539846
This project aims to elucidate the functional evolution of plant calcium- and electrical signaling for stress adaptation crucial for plant success on dry land, to address three outstanding questions within the Priority Programme “MAdLand”: i) which features enabling conquest of land evolved in charophyte freshwater algae, ii) what is the succession and nature of molecular adaptations in early land plant evolution, and iii) what are the molecular evolutionary drivers of tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses?Using three model species, Chara braunii, Marchantia polymorpha and Ceratopteris richardii, we will focus on three ion channel classes considered to provide for local signal generation and systemic signal propagation: i) Glutamate receptor like channels (GLRs), as plasma membrane entry pathways for calcium ions and mediators of calcium and electrical signal propagation, ii) calcium-activated Tandem-Pore Channel 1 (TPC1) proteins as mediators of vacuolar electrical excitability, and iii) Big-K+-channels (BKs), as the putative molecular link that connects calcium- and electrical signaling, expressed in algae and early land plants but not in angiosperms.Using genome editing and molecular genetics, together with cell biology and electrophysiology, we will functionally characterize GLR, TPC and BK channels and dissect their structure-function relationships in heterologous expression systems, in planta and in cross-complementation studies. Using this approach, we will address the following specific questions: i) which ion channels are required for calcium and electrical signaling, ii) how and approximately when did they evolve during plant evolution, iii) what are their physiological roles in different early-diverging plant groups, and what functional changes occurred after the divergence of the alga Chara, the liverwort Marchantia and the fern Ceratopteris, respectively from shared common ancestors with well-characterized angiosperm models, and iv) which structural changes in GLRs, TPC1s, and BKs provided for systemic calcium- and electrical signaling?
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
