GRK 2064:  Water use efficiency and drought stress responses: From Arabidopsis to Barley

• Subject Area: Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 252965955

Water deficiency is one of the major threats to agricultural production worldwide and climate models predict increasing pressure on agriculture as a result of drought. This makes understanding how plants can use water efficiently a prime scientific challenge. Identifying strategies to improve drought tolerance is difficult, because of its complexity as a quantitative trait involving multiple pathways. Many genetic, biochemical and physiological drought responses have been discovered using the plant model Arabidopsis. Yet, only sketchy knowledge is available about (i) the effect of drought on the regulation of primary metabolism, (ii) the molecular mechanisms through which genes contribute to drought tolerance, and (iii) how findings from studies in Arabidopsis can be translated to crops. This Research Training Group aims at the analyses of genes through transcriptomic approaches and of metabolites in plant drought responses. Target molecules to be studied include proline, suberin, reactive oxygen species, aldehydes, antioxidants (tocopherol) and detoxyfying enzymes (glutathione peroxidases, aldehyde dehydrogenases). Our hypothesis is that a combination of evolutionary conserved and species-specific strategies contribute to drought tolerance. We will focus on the model plant Arabidopsis in combination with barley, one of the four globally most important cereals. The goal of our research is to identify factors which improve drought tolerance and can be transferred to barley to be exploited by targeted breeding. The University of Bonn offers a unique location to establish a drought stress research network in Germany, bringing together a powerful triad of leading plant scientists from biology, the agricultural faculty and the Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding in Cologne. The Ph.D. students will be offered a structured education programme of the highest standard with a focussed research training including state-of-the-art technologies and seminars as well as practicals in industry, international research groups and other institutions in Bonn including the Center for Development Research. The students will be embedded into different laboratories to ensure close collaborations, to share resources and to be guided towards critical thinking and independence. The programme will advance our understanding of drought physiology and establish an interactive research network together with a competitive graduate training programme in plant sciences.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
• Participating Researchers: Professorin Dr. Dorothea Bartels, since 9/2015; Professor Dr. Frank Hochholdinger; Professorin Dr. Maria von Korff Schmising; Professor Dr. Jens Léon; Professor Dr. Andreas Meyer; Professor Ali Ahmad Naz, Ph.D.; Dr. Anja Paschold, until 10/2018; Professor Dr. Gabriel Schaaf, since 5/2017; Professor Dr. Lukas Schreiber; Professor Dr. Markus Schwarzländer, until 10/2018; Privatdozent Dr. Wim Soppe, until 4/2017; Professorin Dr. Ute Carla Vothknecht, since 4/2017
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Peter Dörmann, since 4/2019