The disputation will be live streamed using Zoom. The host of the session will moderate the technicalities while the chair of the defence will moderate the disputation.
Ex auditorio questions: the chair of the defence will invite the audience to ask ex auditorio questions either written or oral. This can be requested by clicking "Participants" followed by clicking "Raise hand".
The meeting opens for participation just before 1.15 PM, and closes for new participants approximately 15 minutes after the defense has begun.
Trial lecture
Time and place: August 21, 2020 10:15 AM, Zoom
"CRISPR/Cas9-based technologies as tools to improve food crop disease resistance"
The meeting opens for participation just before 10.15 PM, and closes for new participants approximately 15 minutes after the trial lecture has begun.
Main research findings
The world is facing severe climate changes leading to more extreme weather. This will have a negative effect on plants as they are exposed to an increasingly stressful environment. In this thesis, Vilde Olsson Lalun focuses on understanding how plants react when exposed to stress, such as drought. The results show that plants under stressful conditions produce a plant protein named IDA. Under normal growth conditions, IDA activates abscission, the process by which a plant sheds organs such as fruits, seeds and flowers. In crop plants, it is likely that stressful conditions lead to the production of IDA that subsequently may cause premature abscission thereby drastically reducing crop yield.
Lalun has used the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana to unravel how IDA signals in the plant. Lalun found that IDA, in addition to regulating the abscission process, also regulates proteins know to be involved in activating immune responses in plants. The results presented in this thesis can prove valuable for crop plants in that the correct balance of the IDA protein ensures timely abscission and immunity. The understanding of this mechanism is therefore important for optimized crop yield.