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Signals for Inter-Organelle Communication in Abiotic Stress

Project description

How organelle communication helps plants in abiotic stress

Abiotic stressors, such as heat and drought, challenge plants. To survive, plants must adapt. This adaptation involves essential organelles responsible for stress responses. However, the communication between these organelles in coordinating stress signals and maintaining cellular balance remains unclear. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SINOCA project will investigate communication between the endoplasmic reticulum and chloroplasts to understand how they help plants cope with heat and drought. By combining molecular genetics, transcriptomics, physiological profiling, and AI-assisted analysis, the project is designed to identify new signalling mechanisms and explore known factors involved in this process. Ultimately, the research aims to develop crops with enhanced resilience to environmental stress.

Objective

Abiotic stress is a major challenge for plants, especially as extreme conditions like heat and drought are becoming more frequent due to global climate change. Unlike animals, plants cannot move to escape harsh environments and must instead adapt their metabolism, physiology, and growth to survive. These adaptive responses rely on specialized sensors and signaling hubs within the plant, including organelles, which have been identified as key players in stress responses. While much research has focused on how individual organelles respond to stress, there is still a lack of understanding of how these organelles communicate with one another to coordinate stress signals and maintain cellular balance. This project aims to bridge that knowledge gap by exploring the communication between two key organelles, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and chloroplasts, and their role in helping plants cope with heat and drought—two of the most significant challenges plants face. Under stress, organelles like the ER and chloroplasts send retrograde signals to the nucleus and other parts of the cell to trigger adaptive responses. However, the specific mechanisms of this inter-organelle communication remain largely unknown. By combining traditional molecular genetics with advanced transcriptomics, physiological profiling, and AI-assisted data analysis, we aim to identify and characterize novel signals and further study known players that mediate this vital organelle crosstalk. Ultimately, our research could pave the way for developing crops with enhanced resilience to environmental stress, addressing some of agriculture's most urgent challenges in the face of climate change.

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
Net EU contribution

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.

€ 194 074,56
Address
GRAN VIA DE LES CORTS CATALANES 585
08007 BARCELONA
Spain

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Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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