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Our project aims at identifying key regulators of the recently discovered plant organelle Unfolded Protein Response (UPR), whereby stressed mitochondria and chloroplasts convey information to the nucleus to modulate the expression of nuclear genes and prevent accumulation of misfolded or unfolded proteins. We are mainly interested in identifying the retrograde molecular components that act as signals between the organelles and the nucleus, since the organelle UPR is regarded as a major plant stress response which is activated by either abiotic stresses or biotic agents.

To reach our objective, we propose an integrated functional genomic approach that involves the use of Arabidopsis mutants with active chloroplast and mitochondrial UPR signaling pathways. A high-throughput quantitative proteomic analysis will be combined with the RNAseq approach to provide a comprehensive picture of organelle UPR. Advanced bioinformatics tools will be employed to define a list of candidate genes/proteins involved in organelle UPR. Finally, the basic information gained from Arabidopsis will be transferred to barley in order to prepare a toolbox of allelic variants and accessions for future proposals, addressing increased tolerance of crops to environmental stress conditions.