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The Molecular Basis of the Cellular Memory of Abiotic Stress

Reference	BBS/E/J/000C0627
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Isabel Baurle
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	125,377
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/01/2009
End date	31/12/2010
Duration	24 months

Abstract

Abiotic stress is a major factor limiting crop productivity and this problem is likely to be exacerbated by climate change. Improving the tolerance to environmental stress is one of the most important goals of crop breeding programs. The analysis of the early responses to abiotic stress in plants has led to important insights into how stress tolerance is achieved molecularly. However, how plants adapt to enduring or recurring stress conditions has received little attention. There are numerous indications that plants remember past exposure to abiotic stress, such that a stress event in the past modifies development or responses to stress in the future following a stressless interval. A striking example for such a cellular memory of stress is the finding that biotic and abiotic stress increases the frequency of homologous recombination, with this effect persisting over several generations. However, in this and all other described cases of stress memory, the underlying molecular mechanism is essentially unknown. This project proposes to unravel the molecular mechanism and evolution of a model case of stress memory in Arabidopsis, the maintenance of acquired thermotolerance (aTT).

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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