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Content archived on 2024-06-18

Transgenerational epigenetic regulation of heat stress response

Objective

Abiotic stresses, mainly high temperature, is among the most limiting factor of crops performance and their geographical distribution in European agriculture and worldwide. Although work on temperature tolerance dates many years back, mush less is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms. New evidences point out to long-lasting effect that could be transmitted across developmental stages and even among generations. The TRANS_EPIGEN project will address this issue, focussing on the plants’ reproductive structures that are primary determinants of crop yield and vigour that is of human interest. Adverse conditions during germ cell formation, pollination, seed formation and grain filling account for the bulk of yield losses due to abiotic stresses. Important regulatory steps in these developmental stages are under epigenetic control mechanisms causing transmittable changes in gene expression by modification of DNA and associated proteins. We hypothesize that stress conditions change the interaction between epigenetic regulators and their targets. TRANS_EPIGEN will focus on investigating the influence of heat stress on sexual plant reproduction, aiming at identifying long-lasting epigenetic effects, epigenetic key regulators, their targets, and their interactions in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, the TRANS_EPIGEN proposal will generate novel information relevant to stress physiology and adaptation, epigenetic inheritance, and crop performance under increasingly changing environmental conditions. Identifying genes potentially suitable to improve plant performance under heat stress conditions will pave the way for further research on their orthologues in crop plant aimed at engineering crop plants with better performance after stress exposure, generating undoubtedly IP-relevant knowledge that provides European agriculture a competitive advantage.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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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.

Call for proposal

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FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF
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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.

MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)

Coordinator

University of Zurich
EU contribution
€ 233 576,80
Address
RAMISTRASSE 71
8006 ZURICH
Switzerland

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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.

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