In November ,the German Research Foundation (DFG) announced that our collaborative research center, CRC1101, will get funded for an additional 4 years. In total 14 CRCs in Germany were approved and will start in 01.01.2022. You can find more information in the official press release from the DFG: https://www.dfg.de/service/presse/pressemitteilungen/2021/pressemitteilung_nr_48/index.html
The CRC1101 is integrating several group from ZMBP, University Tübingen, Max-Planck-Society (MPG) at the Tübingen campus and associated research groups of the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) of the University of Heidelberg. Within the CRC1101 the research groups study how specificity of biological processes is achieved on molecular-mechanistic level. The CRC1101 is divided in four research areas: (A) “Specificity by Subcellular Sorting”, (B) “Specificity through Regulators of Growth and Development”, (C) “RNA-Mediated Specificity” and (D) “Receptor-Mediated Specificity”, in which the encoding of specificity of diverse processes will be studied.
The project of the Üstün Lab is within project area (A), Specificity of Subcellular Sorting, in which we study how a pair of NAC transcription factors regulate the proteasome during proteotoxic stress in plants. The proteasome is involved in plant defence and is therefore exploited by pathogens. In the second funding period of the CRC1101, we have shown that a pair of NAC transcription factors regulate proteotoxic stress during bacterial infection, are essential for plant defence, and are degraded by the proteasome (most likely by the ERAD pathway). We aim to elucidate (i) which other target genes are regulated by NACs, (ii) by which factors NACs are posttranslationally regulated, (iii) how subcellular sorting of NACs functions, and (iv) how NACs specifically modulate target genes. This should decipher how NACs integrate different signals to balance the trade-off between proteasome regulation and defence.
This project was initiated by PhD student Gautier Langin, who started his PhD in March 2019, and is continuing his research on the proteasome regulation in plants. His efforts led to several new findings and laid the foundation to be a part of the 3rd funding period of the CRC1101. Gautier will focus on the characterization of both transcription factors, with an emphasis on their posttranslational regulation during proteotoxic stress, for the next year. We are very happy to be able to continue our research on both NAC transcription factors and the proteasome in the next 4 years.
Co-localization study of one of the transcription factors with an E3 ligase at the ER.