Project description
Uncovering the mechanisms involved in plant resilience
Environmental pressures such as dry spells and salty soil make it difficult for plants to grow. In response, plants create shields made of cutin and suberin, which help retain water and prevent pathogens. GDSL-esterases/lipases (GELPs) are important in making and breaking down these shields with the help of MYB transcription factors. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme, the MYBEST project will study how cutin and suberin are formed and modified. The project will explore how MYB proteins regulate these processes, and how GELPs assist them. MYBEST will use MYB proteins to manage suberin and cutin accumulation at the tissue level, contributing to efforts to develop crops that are more resilient to environmental stresses.
Objective
Environmental stressors such as nutritional imbalances, severe temperature, drought, and salinity are detrimental to plant growth. As a major strategy for adaptation to environmental stressors, plants have evolved extracellular barriers as part of their cell walls made of aliphatic biopolymers, cutin and suberin, along with their associated waxes. Cutin and cuticular waxes form the cuticle that covers the outer surfaces of leaves, fruits, and flowers. Suberin, on the other hand, is present in the extracellular space of inner tissues, such as endodermis, periderm, and exodermis, as well as the seed coat. Both cutin and suberin act as barriers, preventing water loss and nutrient leakage while also shielding the plant from pathogens. Despite decades of studies on these biopolymers, many essential aspects of their biosynthesis and assembly remain unclear. Among these is our understanding of the assembly of cuticle and suberin monomers in the extracellular space, as well as the control of the polymerising machinery both developmentally and environmentally. A few members of the GDSL-esterases/lipases (GELP) family have been shown to be involved in the polymerisation of tomato fruit cuticle and Arabidopsis thaliana root suberin. Intriguingly, another subset of GELPs has been shown to be able to degrade cutin or suberin, implying a complex mechanism that plants have evolved to modulate the dynamics of these polymers. On a regulatory level, several MYB transcription factors have been shown to be important in controlling the developmental and tissue-specific responses of suberin and cutin. The proposed research aims at uncovering the mechanisms of MYB-directed and GELP-mediated cuticle and suberin assembly and plasticity during growth and adaptation. Importantly, as part of our proposed work, we intend to use MYBs to manipulate suberin and cutin deposition at the tissue level to create new crop resilience strategies to environmental stressors including drought and salinity.
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.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
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.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
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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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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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) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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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.
08193 CERDANYOLA DEL VALLES
Spain
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.