Investigations of plant salt stress responses using genetically-encoded fluorescent reporters

• Applicant: Dr. Rainer Waadt
• Subject Area: Plant Cell and Developmental Biology
• Term: from 2016 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 289941855

Changing environmental conditions affect plant growth and development. For example high salt concentration in the soil is toxic to plants and reduces the ability of plants to take up water and nutrients.Plants have developed mechanisms to sense and respond to their environment to maximize their growth and reproductive success. To sense their environment plants use signaling molecules such as the hormone abscisic acid, calcium and reactive oxygen species. To understand how plants respond to their environment we need to know the distribution of these signaling molecules and how their signaling pathways communicate with each other.Goal of this project is to improve and use genetically-encoded fluorescent reporters that enable the detection of the above mentioned signaling molecules through microscopic methods. Using such reporters it is possible to monitor the distribution of signaling molecules and the change in their concentration in response to a changing environment (e.g. salt) in intact and live plants.To investigate how plants respond to salt stress we developed a genetically-encoded fluorescent reporter for abscisic acid and established methods using such reporters to measure abscisic acid, calcium and reactive oxygen species in plants. Because certain reporters have distinct fluorescent properties it is possible to measure multiple parameters/signaling molecules at the same time. We will perform our measurements in wild type Arabidopsis thaliana plants but also in plants that are compromised in certain signaling pathways. Further we aim to improve the sensitivity of our abscisic acid reporter and to develop novel abscisic acid reporters with altered fluorescent properties. These will enable alternative combinations with reporters for calcium and reactive oxygen species.In summary, we aim to investigate plant responses to salt stress using genetically-encoded fluorescent reporters and to improve and develop novel abscisic acid reporters.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants