Impact of Arabidopsis nuclear lamina disassembly on chromatin under abiotic stresses

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Chang Liu
• Subject Area: Plant Genetics and Genomics ; Plant Cell and Developmental Biology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 516634837

The nuclear lamina (NL) is a complex network formed with nuclear lamins and lamin-associated nuclear membrane proteins, which scaffold the nucleus to maintain structural integrity. In Arabidopsis thaliana, Nuclear Matrix Constituent Proteins (NMCPs) are essential components of the NL and are required for maintaining the structural integrity of the nucleus and specific perinuclear chromatin anchoring. So far, little has been known concerning the dynamics of NL-chromatin interactions in plants. In our recent work, we found that in Arabidopsis, perinuclear anchored chromatin regions detached from the nuclear envelope under heat stress. Besides, we found that various abiotic stresses caused the Arabidopsis NL to disassemble. This finding prompted us to realise this project to gain a better understanding of the nature of the dynamic NL-chromatin interactions in Arabidopsis. There are three parts in the project. Firstly, we will profile NL-chromatin interactions and the spatial distribution of lamina-associated domains under various stress conditions. In the second part, we plan to employ proteomic approaches to explore post-translational modifications on nuclear lamin proteins and aim to establish their functional implication to the nuclear lamina assembly. In the third part, by generating high-resolution Hi-C maps, we aim to reveal the structural role of nuclear lamins in modulating three-dimensional genome organization during stress adaptation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants