Thesis supervisor: Imre Vass
Location of studies (in Hungarian): Institute of Plant Biology, Biological research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Abbreviation of location of studies: SzBK
Description of the research topic:
Singlet oxygen is an important reactive oxygen species (ROS), which is formed primarily during illumination in the photosynthetic apparatus. Due to its high reactivity singlet oxygen damages proteins, lipids, pigments and other cell constituents in its environment. However, singlet oxygen can also influence transcription factors and gene expression patterns, leading to signal transduction events.
The general aim of this research project is to study the role of singlet oxygen in mediating intracellular signaling events in Synechosystis PCC 6803.
Specific aims of the project include:
• Identification of specific singlet oxygen responsive genes in Synechosystis PCC 6803s cells
• Deletion of singlet oxygen responsive genes in Synechosystis PCC 6803
• Characterization of global transcript changes induced by singlet oxygen in the mutants, which lack the most important singlet oxygen responsive genes
To address the above aims, bionformatic tools will be applied in combination with RT PCR and global transcriptome detection of transcript levels to investigate singlet oxygen responsive genes in cyanobacteria.
Required language skills: English Further requirements: Expertise in one or more of the following (or related) areas: plant molecular biology, plant physiology, microbiology, biophysics, microscopy.