Fine drying: Seed preparation for the dry state

Most seeds remain alive after losing almost all their cellular water during development. This is astonishing considering that other multicellular organisms, such as humans, cannot survive loss of even few amounts of water. This ability, called desiccation tolerance (DT), is critical for long-term seed storage. Despite the importance of tolerating drying, it remains poorly known how the drying stage and rate of progression influence seed development and survival. For the majority of DT research, it was believed that abscisic acid (ABA) is the key regulator that orchestrates the acquisition of desiccation tolerance. Specially in seeds, it is still strongly believed that ABA is the major regulator that controls the gene regulatory network underlying DT. However, evidences from physiological and omics data suggest that the rate of drying (i.e. timing, duration, and the rate of osmotic stress) may also play a regulatory role in the establishment of DT working either in coordination or independent of ABA. How this parallel part of DT regulation occurs on a physiological level and the exact molecular components involved in this pathway is yet to be determined. In this project, I aim to test the regulatory role of drying in acquisition of DT on both transcriptome and translatome level. I will implement an approach combining both in-silico and in-vivo (seeds) experiments to dissect the ABA-driven and drying-regulated part of the DT pathway. The project will allow me to get deeper insight into the evolution of DT and better understand the complexity DT regulation via multiple pathways. This will help identify new candidate genes involved in the regulation of desiccation tolerance and that can be the focus future biotechnological application to improve drought and desiccation stress in seeds and other tissues of the plants.