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Content archived on 2024-06-18

Why do plants make (p)ppGpp?

Objective

Under stress bacteria accumulate the potent chemical messenger (p)ppGpp, which drives global changes in transcription that allow the bacteria to adapt and persist. Remarkably the ability to synthesise (p)ppGpp is conserved in plant chloroplasts, organelles that are descended from an ancient prokaryotic endosymbiont. However, very little is known about the role (p)ppGpp plays in plants. We propose to (a) artificially manipulate (p)ppGpp levels and analyse the downstream responses of the plant, and (b) examine how (p)ppGpp synthesis is controlled and how these control mechanisms are wired into known stress and developmental signalling pathways. Discovery of the role of (p)ppGpp in plants will allow us to better understand how plants adapt to stress, how chloroplast development and photosynthesis are regulated, and how an ancient endosymbiont became integrated into a eukaryotic cell. This knowledge will be important for improving crops to face the challenges of a changing climate and uncertain energy supplies.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)

Coordinator

COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES
EU contribution
€ 173 968,74
Address
RUE LEBLANC 25
75015 Paris
France
Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
No data