RESEARCH

Climate change is a real challenge to the adaptability capacities of plants, which need to develop an effective response to these stresses. Our project will contribute to the progression of fundamental knowledge in this dynamic and ever-changing field.

Our research is centred on different aspects of the cellular and molecular biology, placing particular emphasis on studying more in-depth the plant subcellular mechanism to perceive and response in a quick manner to threat of the environment. We focus on high temperatures and UV-B radiation as stress factors dominating the ongoing global climate changes. Therefore, our project has the potential to uncover diverse solutions that could genuinely impact society.

Plant cellular perception to environmental stress

Interplay of the different cell molecular players that perceive the stress.
Among the cell components, we are interested on microtubules, components of the cell cytoskeleton, that due to their dynamic instability are the best candidates to perceive these environmental stress signals.

Signalling triggered to face stress

Study the transduction of signals that allow the cell to adapt to environmental stresses resulting from climate change and that determine the surveillance of plants.
We centre our efforts on the microtubules-mediated signalling, focusing on liquid-liquid phase separation structures formed to face stress.

Cellular response to stress

Study of the cell reconfiguration processes or pathways that are triggered to ensure the individual survivance.
We aim to understand and optimize these pathways to increase the plant survival to more extreme conditions.

Mechanisms conserved across the kingdoms

Perception-response to stress mechanism are highly conserved across the different kingdoms.
Microtubules and their associated proteins are highly conserved between animals and plants, sharing essential functions such as cell proliferation, differentiation and growth.
We are exploring the similitude in the regulation of the cellular response to environmental stress mediated by microtubules in other cell types, including animal cells. This will help us understand how organisms adapt to changing climate conditions due to climate change.