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Reactive oxygen species in the stress response

Olalla Vázquez, Valentin Trubert

Research question

Can new chemical sensitisers in chloroplasts trigger a targeted ROS response? How is gene expression altered by increased singlet oxygen or hydrogen peroxide accumulation?

Background

Radical oxygen species (ROS) are an important signal in the communication between the cell nucleus and the cell organelles and play a particularly important role in the stress response. However, it is not yet well understood how increased ROS accumulation affects plant-pathogen interaction, how ROS signalling interacts with other intracellular signalling cascades and how ROS influence gene expression. A particular challenge here is the functional differentiation of the various ROS species.

In B4, innovative chemical-biological tools will be used to specifically generate and measure ROS in situ and to investigate the phenotypic effects and changes on the transcriptome, proteome and metabolome in order to understand the ROS stress axis. B4 thus lays the foundation for triggering and measuring intracellular ROS communication in a highly specific manner.