Viktoria Naoumi, council member

About my research

Climate change is a pressing issue, with rising temperatures affecting plants. A potential mitigating solution is cultivating crops at higher altitudes, where temperatures are lower. However, there are multiple environmental conditions that change across altitudes, such as partial pressure of oxygen, light and temperature. Temperature and light vary with latitude, while oxygen availability is primarily linked to altitude. This suggests that oxygen might play a key role in regulating the sensory mechanisms for both light and temperature at different altitudes. Plants detect oxygen through the PCO N-degron pathway, which regulates the ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR (ERFVIIs) transcription factors. Under low atmospheric O₂ conditions, ERFVIIs become stabilized. Previous experiments have shown that plants from different altitudes display varying sensitivities to oxygen levels, resulting in differences in the stability of the ERFVIIs. Since the ERFVIIs are transcription factors, their target genes are differentially regulated contributing to plant adaptation at higher altitudes, which includes adaptation to higher light intensities and low temperature conditions.

Therefore, the main aim of my project is to understand how oxygen and the oxygen sensing mechanism regulate light and temperature responses, in terms of altitude adaptation. To investigate  this, I am using transcriptomic approaches and targeted proteomic tools to explore the interplay between those environmental factors and their role in driving altitude adaptation.