Download In order to survive, plants must constantly adapt to the changing

Alex Levine - Research Projects
Signaling Road Map of Stress Adaptation
The inability of plants to move requires constant adaptation to changing environmental
conditions. Adapted plants can grow in extremely harsh environment, indicating inherent
genetic acclimation to stress. Adaptation involves reprogramming of gene expression and
replacing multiple cellular materials. This occurs in every cell. Majority of stress responsive
genes, including those involved in stress signaling are highly conserved among eukaryotes.
Stress information is transmitted to nucleus, ER and plasma membrane by intracellular
vesicle trafficking system.
An emerging principle from our research is that stresses are associated with production of
reactive oxygen species (ROS) that until recently were considered to cause only damage.
Recently we showed that ROS act in stress signaling.
We use Functional Genetics and Cellular Biology techniques, such as visualization of
GFP/RFP/YFP labeled proteins by confocal microscopy. Comparative Genetics (with yeast,
worms and Drosophilla) with Bioinformatics are used to pick traffic-regulating genes.
Physiological effects are studied in transgenic plants.
Topics: 1) Nuclear Translocation of Zinc finger transcription factors
2) Regulation of vesicle-vacuolar fusion