Mendel University in Brno 

Keynote Lecture 2: Upstream and downstream events in DELLA-regulated growth and development

David Alabadí [a]

[a] Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas (CSIC-UPV), Ingeniero Fausto Elio s/n, 46022-Valencia, Spain

The correct response of plants to environmental changes is fundamental for their adaptation and survival. DELLA proteins coordinate growth and development in response to the environment. This role is sustained by two main features: (i) DELLAs are destabilized by hormones gibberellins (GAs), whose levels are very sensitive to changes in the environmental conditions; and (ii) they have the ability to interact with and regulate multitude of transcription factors, with impact in growth and developmental outputs. The architecture of the signaling pathway defined by DELLAs allows the integration of environmental information with growth and development, since it guarantees connectivity with the environmental sensors, which control GA metabolism, and with the growth and developmental outputs through the interaction with transcription factors.

In my talk, I will present results on the two above mentioned features of DELLAs. On the one side, we have uncovered an alternative pathway to destabilize DELLAs independently of GAs and that defines a novel entry point to convey information about the light and temperature environment into the growth transcriptional network. On the other side, the identification of a novel interaction of DELLAs with a family of transcriptional regulators has allowed us to uncover an unanticipated role for the GA/DELLA pathway in vascular development.