Project description
Shedding light on plant growth
Brassinosteroids are a class of plant hormones that play a crucial role in plant growth and development. They act locally and don't travel far, so maintaining their balance is crucial. Emerging evidence suggests that brassionosteroid precursors must move between different cells for complete synthesis. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the BRACTION project aims to delineate how brassinosteroids are synthesised and transported in plants. The hypothesis is that brassinosteroids are made at the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum and then move to adjacent cells through microscopic channels that traverse the cell walls of plant cells, plasmodesmata. Researchers will use advanced imaging, proteomics, and genetics to enhance our understanding of brassinosteroid homeostasis.
Objective
Since their discovery in 1979, brassinosteroids (BRs) have been extensively studied for their biosynthesis and signalling pathways. Now, in the year 2023, one fundamental question remains: how do BRs move? As the only type of steroidal phytohormones essential for plant growth and development, BRs act in a dose-dependent manner and do not travel long distances. Therefore, BR homeostasis is key to their function. Recent findings in my host lab revealed that in the Arabidopsis root the expression domains of BR biosynthetic enzymes are separated, and the completion of BR biosynthesis requires cell-to-cell movement of precursors, thus, revealing the importance of the short-distance transport for BR homeostasis maintenance. Further we revealed that plasmodesmata (PD) mediate the passage of BRs between neighbouring cells. However, we still do not know where in the cell BRs are synthesized and how these hydrophobic molecules are moving through PD. By searching interactors of BR biosynthetic enzymes, my host lab found interesting candidates associated with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-plasma membrane (PM) contact sites (EPCSs), including PD. EPCSs are known lipid synthesis platforms and contribute to PD function in plants.
Here, I hypothesize that BRs are synthesized at EPCSs, and EPCSs coordinate BR biosynthesis and transport through PD. In BRACTION, I will combine live cell imaging with state-of-the-art imaging techniques to pinpoint BR biosynthesis sites in the cell. Combining advanced proteomics, genetics, and biochemistry, I aim to identify novel candidates that regulate BR biosynthesis and movement linked to EPCSs. Finally, I will employ genetics combined with bioorthogonal chemistry approach to assess candidate influence on BR symplastic movement. BRACTION's interdisciplinary approach will address knowledge gaps in BR homeostasis and drive major conceptual advances in understanding how BR levels are maintained across different cell types and tissues.
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.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgenetics
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsproteomics
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinephysiologyhomeostasis
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
9052 ZWIJNAARDE - GENT
Belgium