Stress Resilience in Crop Production Research Group

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Our Research Group, based on a collaboration of the Genomics Research Group of the Institute of Plant Protection, the Plant Developmental Biology and Plant Stress Biology Group of the Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology aims to study the abiotic-biotic stress resilience mechanisms of plants using cutting-edge combined methodologies.

Climate change harms natural habitats and the productivity of crops. By employing genetic, molecular-biology, biochemical, cytological, and high-throughput sequencing tools, we propose to mechanistically study the plant stress responses alleviating the impacts of hostile environment and optimising productivity and biological fitness. We will study (i) host-pathogen interaction dynamics and defence/counter-defence strategies in natural populations, (ii) temperature dependence of virulence and disease development, (iii) transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of host-pathogen interaction and heat response pathways, and (iv) plant productivity changes upon virus infection, temperature stress or combined stress. Our findings will contribute to the understanding of complex environmental stress responses, a “hot spot” of biological research, and accelerate the development of resilient plants with significance in the light of global warming to ensure food security.

Leader

Dr. Éva Várallyay

Institute of Plant Protection
Research Advisor
Research keywords: small rna, hts, virome, vsr, virus, grapevine, fruit tree, weed

Members

Dr. Tibor Csorba

Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology
Senior Research Fellow
Research keywords: heat stress response, crop yield, rna polymerase ii, monocot and dicot models (hordeum vulgare, brassicaceae), transcriptional and post-transcriptional control

Dr. Ágnes Dalmadi

Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology
Research Fellow
Research keywords: argonaute proteins, barley, arabidopsis, nicotiana benthamiana, mirna pathway, mirna loading efficiency, heat stress

Dr. Zoltán Havelda

Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology
Research Advisor
Research keywords: plant, rna interference, crop improvement, genome editing, agriculture

Dr. Nikoletta Jaksa-Czotter

Institute of Plant Protection
Research Fellow
Research keywords: grapevine, fruit tree, rnai, high-throughput sequencing (hts), virus diagnostics

Dr. András Kis

Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology
Senior Research Fellow
Research keywords: monocot, transgenic, rnai, crispr, cas9

Dr. Zsuzsanna Nagyné Galbács

Institute of Plant Protection
Research Fellow
Research keywords: fruit tree, rnai, high-throughput sequencing (hts), virus diagnostics, weeds

Dr. Henrik Mihály Szaker

Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology
Research Assistant
Research keywords: plants, bioinformatics, heat stress, rna biology, transcription regulation, genomics

Selected publications resulted from the project

Galbács, Z. N., Agyemang, E. D., Pásztor, G., Takács, A. P., & Várallyay, É*. (2024). Viromes of Monocotyledonous Weeds Growing in Crop Fields Reveal Infection by Several Viruses Suggesting Their Virus Reservoir Role. Plants, 13(18), 2664. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13182664. Q1


 

Francesco Desiderio, Zsuzsanna Nagyné Galbács, Emese Demian, Vivien Fákó, David Czako, Tünde Varga, Daniel Barath, Nikoletta Jaksa-Czotter, Igor Koloniuk, Eva Varallyay* (2024). Sweet and sour cherry trees growing at new cultivar testing orchard and certified stock collection in Hungary are highly infected with CVA and PrVF, Scientia Horticulturae, Volume 338, 2024, 113820, ISSN 0304-4238, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2024.113820. D1