Date: 03.06.2022
EMBO fellowship: Spanish scientist extends the team targeting plant signaling
In June 2022, the team of the Laboratory of Molecular Signaling has received new member: Dr. Francisco J. Colina from Spain. For his research in the Czech Republic, Dr. Colina received a prestigious EMBO fellowship, intended for excellent young researchers from Europe and around the world. For two years, Dr. Colina will investigate how plants adapt their development to the environment and stress.
In order for plant and animal bodies to function properly, their cells have to sense information from the environment and communicate with each other, so that they can respond properly to various situations including the presence of harmful microorganisms, nutrients or stress. How such communication takes place in plants is the focus of the laboratory of Molecular Plant Signaling, established last year at the Institute of Molecular Plant Biology - Biology Centre CAS.
A new member of this laboratory is the Spanish scientist Dr. Francisco J. Colina. During his EMBO fellowship, he will address the molecular nature and the control of the timing of plant flowering in response to stress. Specifically, he will focus on an enzyme called CRK2 (Cysteine-rich receptor-like kinase 2) and the way in which this enzyme interferes with flowering control under stress conditions in a model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.
The results of his research will not only bring another piece of knowledge about plants' flowering, their response to stresses, or plant cell communication in general. It could also allow us to grow more resistant crops someday in the future, or – maybe – even have a crop twice a year.
Picture: dr. Francisco J. Colina.
