Project description
Circular RNAs as regulators of plant stress responses
Climate change poses a significant threat to plant viability and agricultural productivity. Understanding how plants sense and react to these stressors at the molecular level is essential for developing more resilient crops. Circular RNAs are a recently discovered class of RNA molecules that are emerging as potential regulators of stress responses. However, their specific role in plants remains unknown. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the CIRCA project aims to investigate the role of circular RNAs in plant cold stress response. Researchers will employ the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana to identify cold-responsive circular RNAs, characterise their functions and reveal the epigenetic mechanisms controlling their formation. Project results will have broad implications for engineering climate-resilient crops.
Objective
The rapid response to environmental stresses is essential for the survival of plants, especially in the light of climate change. To cope, plants have developed different response mechanisms to react to various stress factors. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have gained increased interest within the last 10 years. We have abundant data highlighting their regulation and their involvement in plant stress response, but even though around half a million plant circRNAs have been identified, only a handful has been further investigated for their functions and mechanics. This represents a huge knowledge gap in our understanding of how plant respond and survive environmental stress. After gaining first experience in circRNA identification during my PhD, I, together with the host Dr. Peter Kindgren, have planned the project CIRCA. CIRCA aims to identify and functionally characterize circRNAs in cold response of plants and to reveal transcriptional dynamics and epigenetic patterns at circRNA splice sites. I will identify circRNAs in cold response of Arabidopsis thaliana and investigate their sequence characteristics. In addition, I will unravel the functions by creation of mutants and monitoring phenotypic and transcriptional changes, identify interaction partners by pull-down assays and localize circRNAs. Importantly, I will elucidate transcriptional dynamics and epigenetic patterns like histone methylation regulate the formation of circRNAs. The proposed action will utilize my knowledge of circRNAs and molecular biology and gain new expertise in functional analysis and transcriptional dynamics in synergy with the host. Further training in communication, scientific and grant writing, teaching and professional skills like leadership, will prepare me for a leading position in academia or industry. The output of CIRCA will be of novel high impact, which can be used as a stepping stone for the development of more resilient crops, capable of overcoming the challenges of climate change.
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.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics RNA
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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)
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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)
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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.
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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
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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750 07 Uppsala
Sweden
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