Project description
Harnessing ubiquitin signalling to boost plant protection
Dynamic regulation of gene expression is vital for all organisms and enables them to respond to the ever-changing environment. In response to pathogen attacks, plant cells display dramatic reprogramming of the transcriptome. The EU-funded UbRegulate project will explore the role of the immunising hormone salicylic acid (SA) in this process. SA employs the small post-translational modifier ubiquitin to establish durable immunity. It also induces dynamic modification of regulatory proteins with ubiquitin chains of diverse linkage types, generating the potential to control their functions and activities. The project aims to reveal how SA-induced ubiquitin signalling engages the transcriptional machinery and explore how this may be exploited by agrichemical biology.
Objective
Dynamic regulation of gene expression is vital for all organisms and enables them to respond to the ever-changing environment. Plant cells display dramatic reprogramming of the transcriptome in response to pathogen attack, ensuring prioritisation of immune responses over normal cellular functions. The immunizing hormone salicylic acid (SA) plays indispensable roles in this process, establishing long-lasting disease resistance against future pathogen attack. Chemical and genetic approaches that impinge on SA signalling have been developed to combat economically costly plant diseases that threaten future food security. However, these protection strategies are often environmentally unsustainable or have penalties on plant growth and yield. Understanding how SA reprograms the transcriptome to establish durable immunity will enable the urgent design of improved sustainable technologies for crop protection. My team recently pioneered discoveries that demonstrate SA employs the small post-translational modifier, ubiquitin, to establish durable immunity. SA induces dynamic modification of regulatory proteins with ubiquitin chains of diverse linkage types, generating the potential to control their functions and activities. Understanding the relevance of distinct ubiquitin chain types and their protein targets is a major challenge and is only in its infancy in plants. The ‘UbRegulate’ project will reveal how SA-induced ubiquitin signalling: (i) engages the transcriptional machinery and reveal its potential for exploitation by agrichemical biology; (ii) avoids transcription-induced genome instability; (iii) orchestrates chromatin permissiveness to allow gene expression; and (iv) utilises diverse chain linkage types to establish durable, broad-spectrum immunity. In addition to advancing fundamental insights into dynamic ubiquitin signalling, this ambitious project will reveal how ubiquitin signalling can be harnessed to revolutionise plant protection strategies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics RNA transcriptomes
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
EH8 9YL Edinburgh
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.