Isabell Rosenkranz

The changing climate leads to challenges that plants need to overcome to maintain biomass production and yield. The temperature changes we are facing these days and which we will be facing over the next decades, are one of the most prevailing factors that cause stress for plants. To this day is the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO) under strict regulation in Europe.

To overcome this hurdle, we are working on a mechanism of an endogenous protein to create a GMO-free technique to activate stress induced genes in plants. The goal is to activate user-defined genes such as the cold-responsive CBF genes by an addition of small RNAs (sRNA) that can bind and guide the protein Argonaute1 (AGO1) to specific genomic regions. This is a promising approach since AGO1 was found to be a fundamental player in activation of stress-related genes in the nucleus, besides its well-studied role in the silencing RNA pathway in the cytosol.

This project aims to understand the role of AGO1 in the activation and expression of stress related genes in plants. We aim to determine how AGO1 activates gene expression. Therefore, we will use the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana to study the binding dynamics of AGO1 to its genomic targets. Furthermore, we will try to identify the sRNA that is responsible for guiding AGO1 to the genomic region, the CBF genes in this case. AGO1 is conserved among eukaryotes which will allow us to prove the concept in other species such as poplar or crops. Therefore, we will insert stable constructs into the nuclear genome expressing sRNAs that guide AGO1 to its target. The final task is to achieve similar results as the stable insertion by just applying potential sRNAs exogenously to the plant. This project can have a major impact on plant biotechnology, the food industry, forestry, and society.