Autophagy is a major catabolic pathway in which cell components get sequestered in a double membrane vesicle, transported to the vacuole, degraded by vacuolar hydrolases and recycled. Through this process, cells ensure cell homeostasis and remobilise nutrients. The autophagic flux can be enhanced as an adaptive stress response, improving plants resistance against stress, reducing aging and ultimately increasing yield. However, autophagy regulation in plants remains poorly understood. Novel plant-specific modulators can be used in a chemical genetic approach for identification of proteins involved in the autophagy pathway. Furthermore, autophagy enhancers can find their application in agriculture for improved plant fitness. Known autophagy modulators have severe off-target effects, affecting plant growth and development. A recent screening identified two potential autophagy modulators. We developed a novel method for photoaffinity labelling and pulldown assay in Arabidopsis thaliana to identify potential interactors of the modulators. The identification of autophagy-related proteins will help to further elucidate the autophagic pathway in plants. The effect of the new autophagy enhancers on plant growth and development was analysed by automated growth assays. In comparison with a currently available autophagy enhancer, treated plants showed higher viability, indicating possible further applications for the new autophagy modulators in planta.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-428075 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Ballhaus, Florentine |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för biologisk grundutbildning |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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