Acquisition of energy and regulation of its use by different
metabolic pathways is the fundamental basis for life on earth. Energy
is generally scarce and living organisms have to either feed on other
organisms or use photosynthesis to generate the energy-rich compounds
needed to sustain growth and development.
Energy supplies vary over time and all eukaryotes have evolved methods
to store energy rich molecules. This enables them to counteract adverse
conditions as availability can be buffered via storage reserves.
In all organisms energy usage is modulated by central and conserved
signal transduction pathways regulating both the rate of energy usage
and storage as well as the rate of energy capture (feeding or
photosynthesis). When a plant or other eukaryotic organism faces a
situation with limited energy availability then storage reserves are
mobilized and energy-consuming activities (including growth) are
inhibited. The ability to restrict energy usage is central for
survival. To avoid the detrimental effects of prolonged starvation a
large scale reprogramming of metabolism occurs. This involves
repression of biosynthetic activities and the induction of catabolic
processes to generate the needed nutrients. This process is tightly
linked to the repression of growth as well. We name this response the low
energy syndrome, LES.
The MERIT project will study all
aspects of LES in molecular detail. Experiments will range from the
study of stress responses to metabolic reprogramming, from genetics to
proteomiccs and from the level of individual proteins or genes to whole
plant performance.
In total will MERIT involve more than twenty supervisors, PhD students
and PostDocs in ten different laboratories.