Dr. Moe Abbas
Thursday, November 7th 2024, at 13:00, CET
An Oxygen Sensing Mechanism for Altitude Adaptation in Plants
Dr. Moe Abbas is a Lebanese scientist whose research focusses on understanding multi-stress resilience across geographical niches in plants. Dr. Abbas obtained his doctorate from the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (IBMCP-UPV) in 2014, working with Professors Miguel Blazquez and David Alabadi on gibberellin signaling in plants. In 2015 and after a short post-doc with Professor Jiri Friml (IST-Vienna) he obtained a Marie-Curie fellowship and moved to Nottingham (UK) to work with Professor Michael J. Holdsworth on the N-degron pathway of oxygen sensing in plants. In 2023, Dr. Abbas moved to Utrecht University as an assistant professor in the Plant Stress Resilience group (PSR) to study adaptive mechanisms plants use to ‘sense’ coordinate environmental signals.
Webinar Summary: Altitude is an essential part of plant ecology and alpine plants are among the least studied organisms of terrestrial ecosystems despite being able to survive extreme conditions. As climate change is resulting in an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme environmental events it is crucial to understand the endurance mechanisms of high-altitude plants and to identify traits that will allow us to generate more environmentally resilient plants. Multiple environmental conditions change across altitudes including partial pressure of oxygen, light, and temperature. High-altitude plants are frequently adapted to lower temperatures and higher light intensities. However, the mechanisms underlying this are unclear and confuse adaptation to latitude and altitude. While variations in temperature and light also occur across latitudes, oxygen availability is strictly associated with altitude. Therefore, we hypothesize that oxygen plays a central role in modulating the sensory mechanisms for both light and temperature across varying altitudes. Recently we have identified a molecular mechanism that links oxygen and oxygen sensing to ALL altitudes in flowering plants.
Link to join the webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87012988474?pwd=mfGdpHpzn0AFcWsnUFgm17BCxIZYFa.1