SEMINAR: Bayliss Seminar Series

Within a plant cell two conceptual ways of communication between the organelles exist: anterograde signalling, which refers to nucleus-to-organelle signals, and retrograde signalling, which is a feedback from organelles to the nucleus. Currently, not much is known about the messaging molecules themselves, but it was previously shown that the transcription factor NAC017 is involved in retrograde signalling (Ng S. et al., 2013). Preliminary data suggest that autophagy- a recycling process within the cell, might be involved in switching on or off NAC017-dependent signalling from mitochondria. Because NAC017 is localized in the endoplasmic reticulum (Ng S. et al., 2013) before being recruited to the nucleus upon stress, autophagy might be a mechanism that allows it to be released from the ER membrane to induce gene expression. The aim of this project is to solve how autophagy influences retrograde signalling in plants.