Division of Biotechnology and Plant Health
Beyond the genome: epigenetics of defense priming and climatic adaptation in plants
End: jul 2021
Start: jul 2016
In this project we study epigenetic modifications involved in defenses priming against pests and pathogens and climatic adaptation in plants. These are novel research questions of great interest, both from a basic scientific perspective and from a climate change and crop protection perspective. Healthy, vigorous plants with flexible phenotypes that are well adapted to shifting environmental conditions provide better yield and more efficient carbon sequestration from the atmosphere, with less pesticide use. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of the epigenetic machinery will help inform how epigenetics may be exploited in plant breeding and crop management practices.
| Status | Active |
| Start - end date | 01.07.2016 - 01.07.2021 |
| Division | Division of Biotechnology and Plant Health |
| Department | Molecular Plant Biology |
| Total budget | 25000000 |
The two research themes in this project (defense priming and climatic adaptation) are closely integrated since they focus on the same plant species and are hypothesized to involve similar underlying molecular mechanisms. Defense priming and environmentally induced climatic adaptation are both manifested by phenotypic and gene transcription changes that last weeks to years, but without any change to the genotype. Thus, we hypothesize that both phenomena are established and maintained by one or more components of the plants’ epigenetic machinery. The primary objective of this proposal is thus to determine changes in gene expression, non-coding RNAs, metabolites, and DNA and histone modifications that contribute to defense priming and climatic adaptation in plants.
We study 3 complementary but very different plant species with different life histories:
1. The conifer Norway spruce (Picea abies) is one of the most economically important tree species in Europe and is a gymnosperm model species with a sequenced genome and defined genetic material at our disposal.
2. The woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) is also a model species for the species-rich and economically important Rosaceae family, which includes apples, pears, plums, almonds, raspberry, and the cultivated garden strawberry.
3. Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) is the general plant model and is the most amendable of all plants for functional studies and thus ideally suited to transfer knowledge to economically and ecologically important plants such as Norway spruce and strawberry.
Publications in the project
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Carl Gunnar FossdalAbstract
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Paal KrokeneAbstract
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Raghuram Badmi Abdelhameed Elameen Håvard Eikemo May Bente Brurberg Carl Gunnar Fossdal Paal Krokene Tage ThorstensenAbstract
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Paal KrokeneAbstract
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Paal KrokeneAbstract
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Media interview – - Vil endre debatten om bioteknologi
Tage Thorstensen, Astrid Sverresdotter Dypvik
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