Project description
Understanding flowering locus T role in flowering
The EU Mission for Adaptation to Climate Change highlights the need for improved dryland agriculture. As climate change accelerates, crops are flowering approximately two days earlier per decade. The flowering locus T (FT) protein plays a crucial role in inducing flowering, with previous research focusing on its preference for binding to phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and its impact on flowering time. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the StickyFT project aims to develop FT mutant proteins with enhanced lipid-binding properties, which could have industrial applications due to their strong membrane attachment. Additionally, it will produce proteins that do not bind to membranes, offering new insights into flowering regulation and the effects of ambient temperature.
Objective
EU Mission for Adaptation to Climate Change perceives the improved dryland agriculture as one of the ways to adapt and survive. Humans have the technology and processes to address the major agricultural issues today, such as pest infestation, droughts, the misuse of herbicides; however, the global warming requires a new set of tools and the willingness to adapt from all of us. The key developmental switch for the flower/fruit bearing plants is the change from vegetative to reproductive growth, and the timing is crucial. The climate changes have been already impacting the flowering, as several perennial and annual crops have flowered earlier by about 2 days per decade, during the last 50 years. The flowering locus T is a plant protein highly recognized as a part of the florigen complex, a mobile protein that is produced in the leaf companion cells and transported to the plant shoot apex to induce flowering. My previous work was focused on the FT preference to bind to phosphatidylglycerol (PG), over other lipid species, in the temperature-dependent manner, and the impact on the flowering time. The MSCA Project will address the relevance of the wider array of FT-PG interactions, by utilizing the genetic modifications to produce and characterize the FT mutant proteins with enhanced lipid-binding properties. The super sticky FT would be difficult to remove from the membrane, which could have a potential industrial application. A challenge would be to create the protein that could not bind to the membrane, which will shed a new light onto flowering regulation. The multidisciplinary approach, consisting of molecular biology, biochemistry, structural chemistry, and biophysics, will produce deliverables for the subsequent in planta project. The measured impact of different ambient temperatures will provide us with the knowledge of the fine-tuning and control over the protein-lipid interactions, which could have the long-standing effects in the agricultural applications.
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.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture fruit growing
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- natural sciences biological sciences biophysics
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)
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.4.1 - Widening participation and spreading excellence
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
HORIZON.4.1.5 - Fostering brain circulation of researchers and excellence initiatives
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-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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) HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-TALENTS-04
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
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.
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
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.