Thesis supervisor: Péter Poór
co-supervisor: Attila Ördög
Location of studies (in Hungarian): SzTE Biológiai Intézet Abbreviation of location of studies: SzTE
Description of the research topic:
Abiotic stresses, especially salt stress lead to significant yield losses worldwide each year. From this aspect, it is economically important to understand the role of plant defence against various abiotic stressors. However, the regulation of defence mechanisms or cell death in plant tissues seems to be different under salinity stress. The role of plant hormones and hormone crosstalk-induced signalling in this process is still unclear. The aim of this research is to elucidate the role of phytohomones in defence or cell death of tomato plants under different salt conditions as a function of time. We intend to address phytohormone- (salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, ethylene, abscisic acid) mediated production of reactive oxygen- (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS) following salt treatments. The potential dysfunction of stomatal movements and the photosynthetic activity will be studied to elucidate their role in this process. We would like to analyse the changes in the expression of specific marker genes and proteins in wild type and hormone signalling mutants, which can help to understand the fine-tuning of defence under salinity stress.