Project description
Designing future-proof disease resistant plants
Breeding for disease resistance is the key to growing crops that can resist pathogens, and it is vital to understand how plant immune systems work to speed up the breeding programme for immune precision. Previous research using systems biology approaches revealed hidden components. The EU-funded R-ELEVATION project will now explore how the recognition of pathogens by plant immune receptors is converted into changes in defence gene expression resulting in effective immunity. The overall goal is to develop robust tools to control plant pathogens. The project findings will facilitate the development of management strategies, including the use of selectable traits for plant breeding.
Objective
Plant diseases are widespread and constitute a major threat to food production. Understanding the molecular mechanisms by which plants resist pathogens is essential to design better strategies for protecting crops from diseases. Strict regulation of plant defense gene expression plays a critical role in establishing an effective and fine-tuned immune response; their insufficient expression leads to diseases, while their overexpression can result in autoimmunity and severe fitness penalties. My own recent work using systems biology approaches reveals hidden components inferred by defense gene regulatory networks as essential players in plant immunity. The next challenge lies in establishing how the recognition of pathogens by plant immune receptors is converted to changes in defense gene expression and results in effective immunity. In particular, it is unknown how defense gene regulatory mechanisms are dynamically regulated, whether the mechanisms are shared by different plant species, and how different types of plant cells respond to pathogen attacks. My long-term goal is to develop robust tools to control plant pathogens. To tackle these challenging questions, the R-ELEVATION program addresses three core objectives:
1. Determine how master transcription factors regulate the expression of defense genes.
2. Identify and characterize new and conserved regulatory components during immune activation.
3. Elucidate and compare cell-type-specific gene regulatory networks between resistant and susceptible plants.
With my team, I aim to advance the fundamental understanding of dynamic gene regulatory mechanisms during plant immune activation that are conserved in different plant species. I additionally aim to revolutionize plant protection strategies at the cell-type-specific level. Translating our results into crop plants will enable the development of management strategies, including selectable traits for plant breeding, for more durable and fine-tunable resistance.
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.
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
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)
- plant innate immunity
- transcriptional regulation
- chromatin accessibility
- gene expression
- transcription factors
- protein-protein interactions
- histone remodellers
- transcriptomics
- RNA-seq
- ATAC-seq
- gene regulatory networks
- bioinformatics
- statistics
- mathematical modeling
- multi-omics
- comparative network analysis
- next-generation sequencing
- single-cell technologies
- single-nucleus RNA-seq
- single-nucleus ATAC-seq
- time-series datasets
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.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
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.
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.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
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-2021-STG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
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.
2311 EZ Leiden
Netherlands
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.