Project description
Enhancing plant resilience to oxidative stress
Plants face numerous environmental stressors that lead to oxidative stress, damaging essential macromolecules and reducing crop yields. Higher plants lack selenoproteins (powerful antioxidants found in bacteria, archaea, and some eukaryotes), making them more vulnerable to oxidative damage. Among these, glutathione peroxidase is particularly effective at protecting cells, yet its natural expression is absent in higher plants. Developing stress-resilient crops requires innovative solutions to enhance their antioxidant defences. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the RedoxBoost project will introduce the selenoprotein glutathione peroxidase from green algae (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii) into Arabidopsis thaliana. By integrating the selenium-cysteine (Sec) biosynthesis pathway into plants for the first time, RedoxBoost explores a groundbreaking approach to improving plant stress resilience.
Objective
Various environmental stress conditions in plants lead to oxidative stress and trigger damage to macromolecules causing losses in the crop yield. To better cope with oxidative stress via boosting the redox potential, and antioxidant activity, the RedoxBoost project aims to ectopically express the selenoprotein glutathione peroxidase from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (Sec-CrGPX) in Arabidopsis thaliana. Selenoproteins entail a selenocysteine (Sec) amino acid, encoded by the UGA, which encodes stop codon in higher plants. Thereby, selenoproteins are not present in higher plants but present in eubacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes including green algae. Most of the known selenoproteins were involved in antioxidant activity, redox regulation and are more resistant to irreversible oxidation under severe oxidative stress than their cysteine homologs. I hypothesize that heterologous expression of selenoproteins in higher plants might offer an excellent opportunity for harnessing plants against oxidative stress and hence develop more stress resilient plants. Glutathione peroxidase is one of the most abundant selenoproteins and known to protect cells from oxidative damage. To achieve heterologous expression of Sec-CrGPX in Arabidopsis, initially a DNA assembly of whole Sec biosynthetic pathway and Sec-CrGPX will be transiently expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana to get a swift assessment on the feasibility of ectopic Sec-CrGPX expression in land plants. Then, these Sec-CrGPX DNA assemblies will be stably transformed in Arabidopsis. RedoxBoost for the first-time will integrate the coding mechanism for Sec in higher plants. Biochemical and physiological studies will be performed in transgenic Arabidopsis plants under different stress conditions to determine altered stress resilience. In a changing environment where flooding, waterlogging conditions, and saline soils are becoming more frequent RedoxBoost presents a novel approach for development of stress resilient plants.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology phycology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics DNA
- natural sciences chemical sciences electrochemistry electrolysis
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
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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-2022-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.
9052 ZWIJNAARDE - GENT
Belgium
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.