1. Subcellular trafficking in plant survival
Supervisor: Tomasz Nodzynski, Ph.D.
Annotation:
Endosomal trafficking is vital in plant development both in optimal and stress conditions. This regulated vesicle trafficking is necessary for membrane integrity preservation and therefore plant resistance to acute osmotic stress. We identified proteins differentially localized along the secretory pathway in response to stress indicating their role in cellular stress response. Characterization of those proteins will provide insights into the role of subcellular machinery in plant response to stress and might have potential applications to engineer stress resistant plants that might be curial regarding incoming climate changes.
The PhD student will perform the physiological and cellular phenotype analysis of mutants and overexpression lines. The admitted candidate will perform genetic and molecular biology studies, including in situ protein localization and life confocal imaging techniques. In parallel the student will continue with the characterization of isolated candidate genes interactors.
Recommended literature:
- Zwiewka M, Nodzyński T, Robert S, Vanneste S, Friml J. Osmotic Stress Modulates the Balance between Exocytosis and Clathrin-Mediated Endocytosis in Arabidopsis thaliana. Mol Plant 2015; 8:1175–1187.
- Ashraf MA, Rahman A. Cold stress response in Arabidopsis thaliana is mediated by GNOM ARF-GEF. Plant J 2019; 97:500–516.
- Baral A, Shruthi KS, Mathew MK. Vesicular trafficking and salinity responses in plants. IUBMB Life 2015; 67:677–686.
Keywords: vesicular trafficking; intracellular localization; stress response; adaptation