Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English en
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

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.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

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

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

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

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
Net EU contribution
€ 194 074,56
Address
GRAN VIA DE LES CORTS CATALANES 585
08007 Barcelona
Spain
Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data