Project R-16728

Plant resilience to multistress: unique molecularphysiological signature to combined soil contamination and global warming (Research)

The environmental landscape is increasingly defined by the simultaneous occurrence of diverse anthropogenic soil contamination and climatic change. This creates a complex multistress context that challenges the survival and adaptive capacity of biological systems in a way that single stress studies cannot predict. Within this framework, the individual phytotoxic effects of cadmium should also be evaluated in multistress conditions, as its impact on plant responses could be fundamentally altered by climate-driven variables like heat stress. Using the higher plant Arabidopsis thaliana and the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as complementary model organisms, we will investigate whether combined stress exposure (cadmium and heat) elicits a distinct physiological and molecular signature as compared to single stress exposure conditions. Deciphering these largely unexplored signaling interactions will allow us to define a set of robust early biomarkers of different stress conditions and to propose targeted mitigation strategies. Overall, the project will contribute to enhancing plant resilience for sustainable agricultural practices.

01 October 2026 - 30 September 2030