Research

Imagine a tiny, complex machine inside a cell that acts like a pump, letting essential particles flow in and out to maintain the perfect balance for the cell's survival. This tiny pump, known as V-ATPase, is crucial for many vital processes in cells, from protein degradation to maintaining the correct acidity levels. But studying this pump in animals and humans is extremely challenging because, if it doesn't work, the organism die. This is where the uniqueness of plants comes in! Plants have an additional family of pumps that can step in when V-ATPase is not functioning. This allows us to learn more about V-ATPase without harming the organism. My team and I have developed an innovative technique using advanced microscopy to study V-ATPase in plants, opening up new possibilities for understanding how this pump works. This research has potential far-reaching implications, from gaining a better understanding of how plants have evolved to survive in diverse environments, to new ways to protect our crops in the face of climate change. In addition to our work on V-ATPase, we are also exploring the fascinating world of autophagy in plants. Autophagy is a process where a cell recycles its own components to survive under stress conditions. There are two main types of autophagy – canonical and non-canonical. Canonical autophagy involves the formation of a double-membraned vesicle called an autophagosome, which engulfs cellular components for recycling. Non-canonical autophagy, on the other hand, doesn't involve the formation of an autophagosome. Instead, cellular components are directly going to the vacuole, where the V-ATPase is located at. Our work focuses on understanding the role of V-ATPase in non-canonical autophagy. We believe that this process plays a crucial role in plant survival, especially under stress conditions. By unraveling the intricacies of non-canonical autophagy, we hope to shed light on new ways to improve plant resilience and productivity. And our knowledge on the V-ATPase will be helpful not only for plant research, but the global scientific community. I am excited to embark on this journey to uncover the secrets of this tiny but mighty cellular pump.

Wider research context: Polarity acquisition in cellular and organismal context defines differentiation processes in organisms. Higher plants are no exception, with numerous processes driving polar protein deposition to adjust intercellular communication and adaptation to the plants' environment. Canonical PIN-FORMED (PIN) transport proteins are among the most intensely studied polarly localized proteins in plants, exhibiting variable accumulation at different plasma membrane domains, thereby shaping directional cellular efflux of the plant growth regulator auxin. Control of polar PIN localization is central to polarity acquisition and differentiation processes, and our recent work identified the small WAV3 Arabidopsis family of E3 ubiquitin ligases as determinants of apical-basal cellular PIN deposition. Specifically, combinatorial loss of WAV3/WAVH genes causes basal localization of otherwise apically localized PINs. However, mechanisms of WAV3/WAVH-PIN crosstalk are unknown. Objectives: We intend to characterize molecular principles by which WAV3 and closely related proteins control PIN polarity acquisition. Based on our preliminary work, we aim to position WAV3 proteins in regulatory networks of protein sorting and auxin signaling and will test a hypothetical function of WAV3 as positional determinant in polarity establishment.

Water deprivation as a consequence of changing environmental parameters, represents one of the most immanent problems for agriculture. This, of course, has far-reaching consequences, not restricted merely to crop plants on farmland, but thus affects the most vital resource for a functional society – food supplies. Conventional breeding approaches aimed at the generation of drought-tolerant crops combined with all necessary parameters of elite germplasm, made substantial progress in recent decades. However, current drastic climate changes that we are experiencing, for example in Middle Europe, ask for a swift reaction. Innovative approaches, employing genetic engineering of crop plants, would give rise to a range of transgenic crop plants well adapted to environmental stress conditions. Nevertheless, owing to legislative and -perhaps even more relevant- limited public acceptance, it seems highly unlikely that GMO crops will find their way onto local farmland. Here, we intend to make use of results from basic research obtained in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, which will be adapted for molecular breeding in order to generate drought-tolerant crops. Specifically, by combining expertise from the BOKU campus Tulln and the IST-Klosterneuburg, we propose to generate drought tolerant soybean, via modifying the activity of a plant-specific group of genes. This approach is based on state-of-the art CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing and shall produce novel soybean cultivars that will be tested for drought responsiveness and further vital growth parameters. Once such a proof-of-principle has been provided, it is intended to identify naturally occurring genetic variations from accessible collections of soybean varieties, which will serve as a solid foundation for generation of GMO-free elite germplasm capable of coping even with drastic changes in our environment.