Functional analysis of the role of trehalose 6-phosphate for thermomemory in the plant shoot apical meristem

• Applicant: Dr. Justyna Olas-Apelt
• Subject Area: Plant Physiology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 510554597

Shoot growth is a highly complex biological process, coordinated by the shoot apical meristem (SAM). The SAM provides developmental flexibility allowing plants to adapt their growth and development in response to environmental changes through the presence of a small number of self-renewing and self-maintaining stem cells. Although the SAM is exposed to often life-threatening environmental stresses, little is known about how it maintains its structural and functional integrity under these stresses. My group studies how plants adapt their development to fluctuating environmental conditions. In particular, we are focusing on the SAM’s response to heat stress (HS). We recently found that the SAM of Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis; thale cress) displays a HS transcriptional memory through which it ‘memorizes’ the exposure to a first, moderate, non-lethal stress (priming), during which information of it is stored to ensure a faster/stronger response to the next potentially even more severe HS event (triggering). We also showed that the SAM’s HS memory is dependent on sugar availability. Experimental evidence suggests further that trehalose 6-phosphate, an essential sucrose-specific signal, and hormone-like metabolite, plays a central role in the regulation of the sugar-dependent HS memory at the SAM. The aim of this project is to further investigate the role of trehalose 6-phosphate in the sugar-dependent HS memory and to unravel the molecular mechanisms involved.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants