Dr. József Zsembeli - MATE Research
Overview
Dr. József Zsembeli's research focuses on the development of soil- and water-conserving cultivation techniques, the impact of land use on soil CO2 emissions and organic carbon stocks, with a focus on cultivating farming systems tailored to the agroecological conditions of the Great Hungarian Plain. He elaborates soil protective methodologies to safeguard against adverse effects. He also investigates how soil water and material cycles alleviate the impact of abiotic stress factors on plants. Furthermore, he evaluates the effect of irrigation on crops and the physical and chemical attributes of soils. His expertise covers water and salt balance monitoring by lysimeters providing pedological and hydrological assessments within the primary soil types prevalent in the Great Hungarian Plain.
Research keywords:
Publications
Güngör, B., Biró, J.B., Domonkos, Á. et al. Targeted mutagenesis of Medicago truncatula Nodule-specific Cysteine-Rich (NCR) genes using the Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated CRISPR/Cas9 system. Sci Rep 13, 20676 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-47608-5
Optimization of soil cultivation, water management, and irrigation on heavy textured soils with special regards to climate change and mitigation of organic carbon losses.
Farheen Saifi, János Barnabás Biró, Beatrix Horváth, Csaba Vizler, Krisztián Laczi, Gábor Rákhely, Szilárd Kovács, Mingming Kang, Dengyao Li, Yuhui Chen, Rujin Chen, Ágota Domonkos, Péter Kaló, Two members of a Nodule‐specific Cysteine‐Rich (NCR) peptide gene cluster are required for differentiation of rhizobia in Medicago truncatula nodules, The Plant Journal, 10.1111/tpj.16871, 119, 3, (1508-1525), (2024). https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19097https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12020516
Horváth, B., Domonkos, Á., Kereszt, A., Szűcs, A., Ábrahám, E., Ayaydin, F., ... & Kaló, P. (2015). Loss of the nodule-specific cysteine rich peptide, NCR169, abolishes symbiotic nitrogen fixation in the Medicago truncatula dnf7 mutant. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(49), 15232-15237 https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12020314https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1500777112
Wang, Q., Yang, S., Liu, J., Terecskei, K., Abraham, E., Gombar, A., ... & Zhu, H. (2017). Host-secreted antimicrobial peptide enforces symbiotic selectivity in Medicago truncatula. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(26), 6854-6859. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1700715114We are also characterizing and analyzing M. truncatula mutants defective in the earlier or later stages of nodule organogenesis: how the rhizobia and the plant communicate to start the interaction and also what happens if a nodule-specific Vacuolar iron Transporter-Like (VTL) protein is not present in the nodule. Differentiation and nitrogen fixation is strictly regulated processes; any step is failed no functional nodule is formed.
https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16735
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.709857
Our research is focusing also on the repression of the immune reaction during nodule formation.
https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.13698
https://doi.org/10.3390/genes8120387
Projects
Project no. 1.:
Main objectives of the project was revealing 1) how the interaction between a prokaryotic and an eukaryotic organisms is fine-tuned; 2) whether these gene-for-gene like interactions are related to (the avoidance of) pathogenic responses via the identification of the bacterial and plant genes, gene variants.
Training of farmers V4 in techniques for environmental protection and soil water management NKFI - KH129547 Identification and analysis of NCR genes differentially expressed in Medicago truncatula lines
In 2018 a group of universities, given in the application, did a successful research on a project no. within the Visegrad Fund. The outputs were in a written form provided electronically on web pages of the project free to download for public. The objective of the project is to widen information about the results of the above mentioned project to the widest target group. The project will be realized especially in the form of practical seminars and lectures in all the countries of the V4.In the proposed project, there is a rotation of previously cooperating partners, the coordinator of the project becomes the University of Agriculture in Nitra.
https://visegradfund.uniag.sk/index.html
Project no. 2.: The role of conservation soil tillage in sustainable crop production and prevention of soil degradation with a focus on climate change
An international-level approach to the examination and implementation of modern, soil-protective cultivation systems and methods in the soil:plant:water system, with particular regard to climate damage and soil degradation. Regarding the progress of scientific knowledge related to soil conservation cultivation, we expect valuable results from the comparison of the experiments carried out by the Croatian and Hungarian research groups, as well as the soil quality, weed population, crop yields, etc. from the methods used for monitoring.
The main objective of the project is the identification of the biological relevance of the differentially activated NCR genes in the wild-type M. truncatula, namely they function redundantly or belong to the group of NCRs with unique function. In order to answer this question, the functional analysis of the differentially expressed NCRs is proposed.
