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Regulation of translation during plant stress response
Doctoral study program
Life Sciences (Faculty of Science, Masaryk University)
Supervisor
Consultant
Annotation
In response to stress, protein synthesis comes to a halt and cells assemble specificbiomolecular condensates known as stress granules (SGs), remodelling the cellularprogram towards a specialized active response to counteract the stress. This projectaims to dissect this response in plants.
The student will investigate the stress-specialized translation initiation complex eIF4Fand determine its biological role under SGs formation. It is expected that the student willbecome an expert in cellular biology, utilizing advanced microscopy techniques (confocaland super-resolution microscopy) and common molecular biology techniques, tovisualize from protein complexes to single RNA molecules.
Recommended literature
- Banani, S. F., Lee, H. O., Hyman, A. A. & Rosen, M. K. Biomolecular condensates: Organizers of cellular biochemistry. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology vol. 18 (2017).
- Cairo, A. et al. Meiosis exit in Arabidopsis is driven by P-body-mediated inhibition of translation. Science (80-. ). 377, (2022).
- Cho, H. Y., Lu, M. Y. J. & Shih, M. C. The SnRK1-eIFiso4G1 signaling relay regulates the translation of specific mRNAs in Arabidopsis under submergence. New Phytol. 222, (2019).
- Chantarachot, T. & Bailey-Serres, J. Polysomes, stress granules, and processing bodies: A dynamic triumvirate controlling cytoplasmic mRNA fate and function. Plant Physiology vol. 176 (2018).
- Desroches Altamirano, C. et al. eIF4F is a thermo-sensing regulatory node in the translational heat shock response. Mol. Cell (2024) doi:10.1016/J.MOLCEL.2024.02.038.
Research area
Plant biology for crop improvement
Keywords
Protein translation, gene expression, biocondensates, plant stress response, Arabidopsis, stress granules, cellular biology, microscopy
Funding of the PhD candidate
The funding will be provided from the GACR Standard Project (2025) Regulation of translation during plant stress response.
Requirements for candidate
We are looking for a highly motivated PhD student with an interest in cellular biology andadvanced microscopy techniques. Ideally the candidate should have acquired basicexpertise in plant molecular biology techniques. Confocal microscopy is a plus althoughit is not required.
Information about the supervisor
Albert Cairo is a senior researcher integrated within the laboratory of Karel Riha. Our laboratory is an international team comprising three Master's students, five PhD students, eight postdocs, and three technicians. We have several lines of research, and our laboratory has recently gained recognition as a result of our work in biomolecular condensates and meiosis. We are now expanding our research into the stress response. For more information visit our website https://rihalab.ceitec.cz/.