Helen Landgraf (Universität Rostock)
Helen Landgraf's Master thesis was awarded with the Prize for the Best Plant Science Master Thesis, which was carried out at Universität Rostock in the year 2024 with the title:
Impact of the subcellular localization of SnRK1 on anthocyanin formation and high light acclimation in Arabidopsis thaliana
The differential localisation of SnRK1, a protein kinase essential for the regulation of energy homeostasis, between nucleus and cytosol affects primary and secondary metabolic reactions and thus influences development and growth.
The maintenance of energy homeostasis in plants during growth and under changing environmental conditions is enabled by a highly conserved protein kinase, the sucrose non-fermenting 1-related protein kinase (SnRK1). Under stress conditions, SnRK1 mobilises alternative energy sources through the post-translational and transcriptional regulation of catabolic and anabolic responses. A key to the action of SnRK1 is its variable localisation between the cell nucleus and the cytoplasm. Using physiological and molecular biological techniques such as qPCR, gas chromatography and LC-MS/MS analyses, the effects on metabolic and growth-specific parameters were determined in Arabidopsis thaliana mutants that accumulate the kinase in only one of these compartments. For example, the exclusive localisation of SnRK1 in the cell nucleus had a positive effect on growth. The results of this work suggest that SnRK1 localisation is important for the regulation of primary and secondary metabolism under acclimation-relevant conditions, which will be of economic importance in agriculturally important crops in the future.
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Helen Landgraf conducted this work at the institute for Bioscience in the working group of Jun.-Prof. Dr. Andreas S. Richter focusing on the physiology of plant metabolism.