National Excellence Program (ÚNKP)

Dear Readers!

I am happily inform you that I am supported by the National Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities.
I recieved a scholarship the duration of which is 10 months (01. 09. 2017.-30. 06. 2018).
I am currently examining the possible signal interaction between nitric oxide and ROP GTPases during root growth.
With monthly updates, I will share some results in this blog in English and also in Hungarian.


Kedves Olvasók!

Örömmel jelentem, hogy elnyertem a Nemzeti Kiválóság Program 10 hónapos Ösztöndíját (ÚNKP-17). A pályázat időtartama: 2017. 09. 01.- 2018. 06. 30.

Ennek keretében jelenleg is vizsgálom a nitrogén-monoxid (NO) és a ROP GTPázok közötti lehetséges interakciókat a gyökér növekedése során.

A pályázat rövid, magyar nyelvű leírását alább láthatják:

A nitrogén-monoxid (NO) egy fejlődést irányító jelmolekula, mely részt vesz pl. a pollentömlő és a gyökérszőr csúcsi növekedésének szabályozásában. Ezen sejtélettani folyamatok a növény-specifikus regulátor fehérjék, a ROP GTP-ázok közreműködésével mennek végbe, melyek NO-dal való esetleges interakciójáról nem rendelkezünk ismeretekkel. Ezért munkám célja egy lehetséges ROP-NO jelkapcsolat feltárására és jellemzése.  A NO bioaktivitása poszttranszlációs szinten, a célfehérjék nitrációja és nitrozilációja révén valósul meg. Ezen NO-függő poszttranszlációs módosítások vizsgálata a növényi rendszerekben újszerű megközelítés és ezek általam korábban elvégzett in silico predikciója arra utal, hogy a NO szabályozhatja a  ROP-ok GTP-kötő aktivitását. Erre, valamint előzetes irodalmi adatokra alapozva feltételezem, hogy a NO és a ROP-ok között jelkapcsolat állhat fenn a növényi növekedés-fejlődés specifikus folyamataiban. A két molekula kölcsönös kapcsolatát a lúdfű (Arabidopsis thaliana L.) gyökérrendszerének növekedése során vizsgálom.  

A ROP6::GFP lokalizációja a főgyökér csúcsban (balra), az oldalgyökér kezdeményben (középen) és a kifejlett oldalgyökérben (jobbra) (saját felvétel).

A következő bejegyzésben a köszöntő ünnepségről osztok majd meg fotókat!

Congress

Dear Readers,

At the end of August, the Hungarian Society of Plant Biology organized its 12th Congress in Szeged. Certainly we participated in it and our group presented three posters and a lecture.

One poster showed data about selenium-induced morphological responses of the root system and the possible involvement of nitric oxide, ethylene and strigolactones in this process.

The poster prepared and presented by Dr. Zsuzsanna Kolbert

Another poster presented data on our rhizotron study. It showed results of zinc effect on Brassica root growth.

The poster prepared and presented by Dr. Gábor Feigl

Árpád Molnár, PhD student gave a lecture about the relationship between selenium toxicity and protein tyrosine nitration (based on his recently accepted paper). Also, Dr. Réka Szőllősi prepared a poster about the effect of selenium on root tissue morphology in selenium hyperaccumulator and non-accumulator Astragalus species.

Conference participants:

The Congress is over, the summer is over and the students are here :) 

When the semester is over...

Dear Readers!

This blog post is not of a scientific nature. We would like to show some pics that demonstrate how things are going on.

At the end of May, Dr. Gábor Feigl visited the 8th International Symposium on Root Development in Umea, Sweden. He presented a poster about excess element-induced tyrosine nitration in roots.

Conference web site

Lecture room (photo taken by G. Feigl)

The poster of our group (photo taken by G. Feigl)

In June, we submitted an application for a Hungarian-French Bilateral cooperation project, where our partner is Professor David Wendehenne and his lab. Finger cross! ;)

Since the semester is over, we have time to immerse ourselves in science :) Petri dishes (and rhizotrones) are everywhere!

Let's take a look at some photos of our working days...

Sampling for immunofluorescence (Astragalus species)

ilovemyjob (Zsuzsanna Kolbert, group leader)

Preparation of soil in rhizotrons (Gábor Feigl, postdoc)

Science in progress (Árpád Molnár, PhD student

Last year, we wrote a chapter in a book, which will be published soon (Wiley). The topic of our chapter is the relationship between ROS and NO during plant development.

about the book

Bye-bye till next time!

Buon giorno, dear Readers!

It is a special blog entry, because I am currently in Italy. In the frame of Erasmus+ project, I am spending a week in this beautiful country :)
I visited Professor Stefano Mancuso's lab in Florence, which was a great pleasure! I had interesting conversations on their current projects, I saw a real time non-invasive ion flux measurement which I found really interesting. Moreover, I hold a lecture which was an introduction of our group, research interest and present projects.
Professor Mancuso raised the possibility of a common project in which we could examine the effect of selenium on ion fluxes of the root system. I am excited, this topic would be interesting :)

Let me show you some pictures about the "bella Italia" :) I visited Pisa and Florence. Besides, my accommodation was in Calenzano and the University/Department is located in Sesto Fiorentino :) So, I was in motion! :)

In Pisa:

In the small but beautiful botanical garden of Pisa:

And a last picture about the presentation at the University:

So, thanks for the Erasmus project, it was a great opportunity to build a contact with this really brilliant lab! Hopefully, will be a sequel :)

Nice news

Nice news!

Árpád Molnár PhD student of our group has reached 3rd place in the "József Sófi Scholarship Conference". 

He presented his work entitled "Protein tyrosine nitration as a biomarker for plant selenium sensitivity."

We are proud of him, congratulations! 👏 🙌 🙌

Here you can find an article about this Conference (in Hungarian):
click here

Lab life, lab stuff! 👀 🙌

We did some small nice and useful developments in the lab.

• We bought an illuminating keyboard with which data evaluation in the dark is much more comfortable.
• A lamp with different illuminating colours was purchased as well. We can change colours, thus the light does not disturb microscopic observation. What a colourful lab! :)
• And a magnetic table for the useful scientific (and not so scientific) massages/comments.
• 
  
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We are working! :D

Conference photo from Wien

This is the conference photo taken in Wien in February 2017 :)

Hello Everybody!

Let me report about a joyful event happend on 9th March 2017. 

I presented my scientific and classroom habilitation lectures both in English and in Hungarian!

It was really exhausting but I think I did well :)

Let me show 2 pictures (taken by my colleague, Dr. Péter Poór):

Scientific presentation (I am showing the appearance of stress-induced morphogenic response phenotype in Brassica species)

Classroom presentation (I am explaining the meristem cell structures)

Now, I can focus on research again ;)

Zsuzsanna

Wiener Schnitzel, Mozartkugel and Conference

Dear Readers, Greetings from Wien!

I am visiting the Conference entitled "Plant Nutrition, Growth and Environment Interactions III".

Conference website

This was the last day of the conference, tomorrow I travel home.

I heard interesting talks e.g. about iron transport, signalling, N/nitrate signalling, sulphur accumulation. The invited speakers presented the highest level science.

Now, I am full of new ideas :)

I presented a poster about selenium-influenced root architectural changes and the involvement of ethylene in this process.

And let me show some pictures about my last 3 days in Wien:

Conference people

 

 

Posters (only 19 posters were presented)

Me and my poster

And a last picture indicating that I am really in Wien (Stephansdom and platz):

I am glad to be here (thanks for János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and for the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund (grant No. NFKI-6, K120383).

A new publication from our group in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry!

"This review intends to evaluate the accumulated knowledge about the biochemical mechanism, the structural and functional consequences and the selectivity of plants’ protein nitration and also about the decomposition or conversion of nitrated proteins. 

At the same time, this review emphasizes yet unanswered or uncertain questions such as the reversibility/irreversibility of tyrosine nitration, the involvement of proteasomes in the removal of nitrated proteins or the effect of nitration on Tyr phosphorylation. The different NO producing systems of algae and higher plants raise the possibility of diversely regulated protein nitration. Therefore studying PTN from an evolutionary point of view would enrich our present understanding with novel aspects." 

Let's show you a summaryzing figure from the paper:

Fates and consequences of PTN. Possible mechanisms regulating nitrated protein pool (left) and possible functional, signalling consequences of tyrosine nitration (right). The nitro group in tyrosine residue can be reduced, but neither enzymatic nor non-enzymatic reductants have been identified in plants or in animals. Denitrase activity has been characterized in animals but not in plants consequently the reversibility of tyrosine nitration is still questionable. Formation and accumulation of proteasome-resistant protein aggregates can also be conceivable. Nitrated proteins can be targeted for polyubiquitination and for proteasomal degradation as it was evidenced by Castillo et al. (2015). Nitration may cause structural and consequently functional modifications (inactivation, activation) in proteins. In plants, evidences available for PTN-triggered functional loss or unaffected activity (Begara-Morales et al., 2015). Moreover, nitration of tyrosine amino acid may interfere with phosphorylation. In plants, the converse regulation of Tyr phosphorylation and nitration has been evidenced which raises the possibility of competition between the two post-translational regulatory processes (modified from Souza et al., 2008).

click here if you are interested in

Dear Readers!

The research project entitled "Novel regulators in morphological adaptation of plants: the roles and interactions of nitric oxide- and hormone-dependent signals" has officially been started.

At first, a rhizotron system has to be optimalized for root growth analysis. Gábor industriously prepares the rhizotrones and the lab looks like a yard! :D

Later, we will show some pics about our plants growing in these nice rhizotrones.