Carl Tryggers Stiftelse för Vetenskaplig Forskning
Carl Tryggers Stiftelse tillkom genom en donation daterad den 9 april 1961. Donator, Carl Trygger, var född i Uppsala 1894 som ende son till universitetskansler Ernst Trygger och dennes hustru Signe, född Söderström. Efter en juris kandidatexamen vid Stockholms högskola verkade Carl Trygger bl a i bankvärlden (Göteborgs Bank), som chefredaktör för Svenska Dagbladet 1934-40 och som styrelseordförande i AB Iggesunds Bruk och Boxholms AB. Det var aktier i Iggesunds bruk som låg till grund för donationen. Carl Trygger avled 1978 och testamentariskt tillfördes då Stiftelsen ytterligare medel. Utvecklingen av stiftelsemedlen har varit mycket gynnsam och under de senaste åren har Stiftelsen kunnat dela ut forskningsmedel med c:a 60 miljoner kronor årligen.
When cells encounter stress or climate changes, they face an energy crisis since the stress ultimately exhaust their energy resources. To tackle this problem, cells form giant agglomerates of RNA and protein, so-called stress granules (SGs) [1]. In SGs, RNA molecules are kept silent, preventing waste of energy on producing proteins not needed under stress. The RNA molecules are attracted to SGs by SGs-associated proteins.
Our mission
Stress is quite important during flowering, as it is when seed set is accomplished and this can tremendously impact the productivity of harvestable organs, such as fruits and also the reproductive fitness of the plant. Flowering is the most stress-sensitive phase in many crops, therefore the flowering is a major target of breeding programs. Therefore, the understanding of SGs functions during flowering may provide novel means for improving crop productivity.
In plants, the composition and functions of SGs remain elusive. We previously identified Tudor Staphylococcal Nuclease as the first known core component of SGs, showing an irreversible association with SGs . Other known SGs-associated proteins, such as Rbp47 continuously shuffle between SGs and cytoplasm (kiss-and-run type of association with SGs). This extremely firm association of TSN with SGs makes it unique in the sense that it can be used to identify the SGs-associated proteins.
Our ultimate goal in this project is to identify new components of the stress tolerance machinery that can be used to improve adaptation of crops to stress and climate change. To achieve our goal, we will built on our previous results obtained during the first project’s year to get insights into the role of SGs. To this end, we will use reverse genetics and phenotyping assays. Furthermore, we will employ our discoveries on the composition of SGs to establish a new method for surveying protein-protein interactions in a fast, reliable and highly advantageous manner.
Hypothesis: The identified SGs-associated proteins play an important role in stress adaptation and the onset of flowering and they can be used as a reference for the establishment of novel methods for the identification of protein-protein interactions. We will challenge our hypothesis by pursuing the following objectives:
- Study the role of the identified SGs components in stress and flowering.
- Establish a novel interactome mining method using as reference the SGs proteome.
MOSCHOU LAB 