Increasing fitness potential of plants through chromatin landscape analysis during stress responses

Stress responses under water scarcity are induced to enable survival and simultaneously shoot growth is reduced to limit water loss. It is therefore of paramount importance to analyze the molecular mechanisms regulating stress response and tolerance in higher plants to enhance stress-survival. The interplay between abscisic acid (ABA) and jasmonates (JAs) stress hormone signalling pathways is central to align plant growth with the environment. JAs evokes a transient growth arrest in an ambivalent, so called, READY-TO-GO state, followed by the reset of growth rate. Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and ABA levels increase during drought stress and MeJA plays an important role in drought-induced loss of grain yield. The process of priming or hardening involves previous experience of a biotic or an abiotic stress making a plant more resistant to future exposure. Chromatin remodelling is emerging as an important factor to regulate environmental response genes. Exposure to a priming agent could modify an epigenetic mark such histone modification, enhancing responses to subsequent stress.
This project will establish the molecular mechanism by which plants memorize information on stress exposure to overcome the limits that biotic and abiotic stresses impose on agricultural production due to down-regulation of yield.