Meiotic recombination, pollen morphological variation, and allelic selection in rye (funded by DFG Emmy Noether Programme)

In this project, we are addressing the following questions:

1. What is the genetic architecture and environmental plasticity of meiotic recombination?

2. What is the extent of intra-specific pollen morphological variation in a wind-pollinating grass species (Secale cereale L.)?

3. Can we identify signatures of selection in response to nutrient stress in a genetically diverse population? And to what extent do genomic signatures of selection depend on recombination rate variation?

Meiotic temperature resilience in wild barley (funded by DFG)

Meiosis plays an important role in generating genetic diversity, and its faithful completion is essential for fertility and, at least in seed crops like barley, wheat, and rye, grain yield. Unfortunately, this crucial cell division is very sensitive to temperature extremes (cold or heat), putting crop yields at risk.

This project addresses the following questions:

1. Is there natural variation in meiotic temperature resilience?

2. Can we identify allelic variants conferring higher temperature resilience?

3. What is the molecular mechanism underlying variations in meiotic temperature resilience?

Quantitative cytogenetic characterization and structural analysis of REC8 proteoforms in plant meiosis (part of DFG-funded CRC "SNP2Prot - Plant Proteoform Diversity" in collaboration with Panagiotis Kastritis (MLU))

The aim of this project is to improve our understanding of allelic variants of REC8, a protein involved in structural organization of meiotic chromosomes. REC8 is part of the cohesin complex, which is responsible for sister chromatid cohesion, and was shown to influence recombination rates. In previous work, we identified REC8 allelic variation in wild and domesticated barley. Importantly, the structure of the barley cohesin complex, its subcomplexes, and how proteoforms regulate its architecture, and therefore, its meiotic function, is unknown.

Throughout this project, a combination of molecular cytogenetics approaches, in vitro protein characterization, computational structural biology methods, and cryo-EM will be used to reveal the structure and function of REC8 proteoforms.