Plant Science Colloquium with Romy Schmidt-Schippers

Hypoxia, a condition of limited oxygen availability, occurs naturally in the context of flooding and negatively affects the viability of plants. Changes in the cellular redox status in the presence of oxygen deprivation are not yet associated with important transcription cascades required for adaptation. We identified the redox-sensitive SRO repressor family acting on key transcription factors under hypoxia and applied a variety of genetic, biochemical and molecular biological approaches to unravel the molecular mechanism of repression by SRO proteins. In addition, the impact of redox signals generated under hypoxia on the function of SRO family members is examined. Taken together, a significant expansion of our understanding of the integration of multiple cellular signals in transcriptional cascades leading to low-oxygen stress tolerance is presented.