Harnessing the DNA Damage Response to improve plant tolerance to heat stress

In the context of climate change, Europe is facing new challenges that are threatening food security. There is thus an urgent need for the development of innovative strategies to improve plant tolerance to stress. Notably, recent years have already shown an unusual frequency of heat waves during the summer, a stress condition particularly threatening for yield as it cannot be mitigated in the field. Like many other kinds of stress, heat stress has a detrimental effect on growth due to reduction of the cell division activity in meristems. There is accumulating evidence that this growth reduction depends at least partly on the activation of the plant DNA Damage Response (DDR). The HeatDDR proposal aims at building on the acquired knowledge to decipher the links between the DDR and plant heat stress responses, and to fine-tune these cellular responses in order to allow plant survival without impairing growth. By bringing together groups with complementary expertise and private companies interested in this topic, HeatDDR will combine multiscale approaches including biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, genetics, computational biology and plant phenotyping to tackle this question and to train a new generation of scientists specializing in this emerging field. Trainees will work on both Arabidopsis and crops and will thus be aware of different plant models, and on specific challenges associated with breeding. Through the HeatDDR programme, ESRs will receive hands-on training on advanced laboratory techniques and develop transferable skills, thereby ensuring their successful integration on the job market either in the academic or in the non-academic sector, and setting the ground for the construction of European network of collaboration in this field.