Calcium Regulation of Plant Productivity (CROPP)

Plants, in common with us and other organisms, require the ability to sense conditions in the environment e.g. what temperature it is, how bright it is etc. Most of our own senses operate through nerves. We have specific receptors in our skin, which are able to detect, for instance, temperature, and this information is relayed to the brain through our nerves. Pretty much all our senses start life with an increase in the concentration of the metal ion, calcium, in the cells very close to where the stimulus is perceived e.g. skin for touch and tongue for taste. It is this calcium elevation which actually triggers the nervous impulse, which finally leads to the brain, and tell us what we are feeling. Obviously, plants do not have nerves, but very interestingly, this increase in calcium upon sensing something happens in plants too, and is also extremely quick! So if plants don't have nerves, what is this calcium increase for? Well in the case of plants, the calcium triggers changes in the physiology of the plant to make it better able to cope with the change in the environmental conditions e.g. in response to low temperature, the plant will produce proteins which will allow it to tolerate freezing better. There are obviously many questions to answer on this important topic, but the three key ones are: (1) What genes/proteins does calcium switch on/off to make the plant able to tolerate the stress? (2) What mechanism does calcium use to do this? (3) How does the information from calcium encode specific information e.g. cold as compared to heat in plants (in humans we have different nerves for different stimuli: plants don't). It is to answer these fundamental questions that the research proposed here is addressed.

The scientific aim of CROPP is to increase our understanding of general principles in calcium-mediated processes that govern plant growth and development. CROPP will address the role of calcium signalling during light-dark transition triggering developmental responses and in response to environmental stress and hormones. In addition, we will analyse the cellular responses independent from the primary stimulus using artificially induced calcium elevations. Because the principle of calcium-based signalling and its components are common to all plants and key regulatory components are phylogenetically conserved, knowledge and results obtained with model systems will be assessed and utilised for improvement of biotechnological relevant traits in crop plants.