Dr. Klaus Apel

305 Boyce Thompson Institute
email: kha24@cornell.edu
phone: 607.279.7734

The role of singlet oxygen as a signal that induces gene expression changes and enhances the plant’s capacitiy to cope with environmental stress.

Our work is aimed at understanding and modifying the genetic constraints that determine the adaptability of plants to environmental changes. The success of our work depends on the exploitation of a conditional mutant of the model plant Arabidopsis that generates singlet oxygen in plastids in a controlled and non-invasive manner. A main function of singlet oxygen is the activation of a genetically controlled acclimatory response that confers an enhanced stress resistance to plants. Second-site mutants have been isolated that have either lost the ability to acclimate or are constitutively acclimated. The analysis of the mutated genes in a wild-type background will be instrumental in reconstructing complex regulatory circuits at the genome level and identifying key genes that control acclimation. The impact of modifications of these key genes on stress tolerance and productivity of whole plants will be tested under various environmental conditions. Our work provides a unique insight into the complexity of stress-related signaling that determines the robustness of plants in response to climatic changes predicted to occur in the future and will offer means of how to adjust their adaptability to these changes.

For more information about the Apel Research Group, please visit the lab’s webpage at the Boyce Thompson Institute.