Presenter

Ive De Smet, Professor, VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, Belgium

Outline

Throughout their life cycle, plants encounter a range of temperatures, from freezing conditions to extreme heat. However, plants exhibit remarkable adaptability in response to these varying conditions. Nonetheless, the increasing trend of rising temperature, driven by climate change, is affecting the productivity of natural and crop ecosystems. 

To develop heat-tolerant crops and to enable sustainable agriculture, additional breeding schemes are urgently needed, and through omics data, we can identify relevant genes, proteins or metabolites. We established a framework to precisely identify wheat protein-phosphorylated sites associated with varying temperature sensitivities. 

Our growth, development, and molecular data provide evidence supporting that responsiveness to temperature should be viewed from a context of dose-dependency instead of a binary process, revealing key regulatory kinases and temperature-dependent processes. For example, we identified a wheat MAP4K4 module that is involved in both high temperature-mediated growth and stomatal opening. In addition, pinpointing post-translationally regulated players in the temperature response is not only crucial for functional studies, but also to identify breeding markers or genome editing targets. 

Through this study, we demonstrate proof-of-concept for an experimental framework to identify key phosphosites by comparing crop varieties with contrasting stress responses. Ultimately, the phosphorylation state of selected proteins defines a unique phosphoprotein signature, and these protein phosphorylation states can serve as biomarkers for heat stress tolerance.

Useful Link

• De Smet Lab page

Recording