Thesis supervisor: László Szabados
co-supervisor: Laura Zsigmond
Location of studies (in Hungarian): Institute of Plant Biology, Biological Research Centre, 6726-Szeged, Temesvári krt. 62., Hungary Abbreviation of location of studies: SzBK
Description of the research topic:
In response to environmental stress, large-scale metabolic rewiring takes place in plants. Proline and ascorbate are essential in osmotic protection, redox control, ROS scavenging, cellular signaling and are predicted to influence energy supply as they are implicated in photosynthetic and mitochondrial metabolism. In the proposed research program we will study interaction of proline and ascorbate metabolism, their role in plant responses to environmental stresses, influence on photosynthesis, redox and energy balance. Mutants disrupting proline and ascorbate metabolism and overexpressing lines will be crossed and their salt and drought responses as well as photosynthesis compared. Growth and physiological parameters will be characterized in vitro and by automatic phenotyping. Conditional expression system will be used to overexpress key genes in proline biosynthesis and catabolism. Changes in redox balance, ROS accumulation, oxidative damage, photosynthetic and mitochondrial electron transport, programmed cell death and hypersensitive responses will be monitored. Metabolic changes in mutants and overexpressing plants will be identified by non-targeted metabolomics. Global changes in gene expression of the proline mutants will be analysed by RNAseq transcript profiling. Effect of photosynthesis on proline metabolism will be studied by characterizing plastid to nucleus signals using retrograde mutants. Intracellular localization of proline biosynthetic enzymes will be characterized to test possible interactions with plastid-located processes. The results will help to decipher metabolic interactions, identify regulatory mechanisms which determine stress tolerance.
Required language skills: English Recommended language skills (in Hungarian): Hungarian Further requirements: The Applicant should be interested in plant biology. Reliable knowledge in genetics, biochemistry, plant physiology and molecular biology is essential. Basic knowledge in informatics is needed.
Number of students who can be accepted: 1
Deadline for application: 2022-09-01
2024. IV. 17. ODT ülés Az ODT következő ülésére 2024. június 14-én, pénteken 10.00 órakor kerül sor a Semmelweis Egyetem Szenátusi termében (Bp. Üllői út 26. I. emelet).
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