Our research
Understanding How Plants Survive Extreme Water Loss
Water is essential for life, but remarkably some organisms have the capacity to survive extreme loss of water from their cells, a trait called Desiccation Tolerance. This ability allows seeds to survive drying during development and storage and enables some plants to withstand severe water limitation. We use ("orthodox") seeds as a powerful biological model to investigate the mechanisms behind desiccation tolerance, focusing on the seed maturation phase of development, when desiccation tolerance is acquired.
Research questions:
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How has desiccation tolerance evolved across the plant phylogeny?
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How is desiccation tolerance regulated at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels?
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How do plant cells sense drying and reorganize their cytoplasm to survive extreme water loss?
Seed Maturation: A System To Understand And Improve Resilience To Extreme Abiotic Stresses
Desiccation tolerance is acquired during seed maturation, alongside other important traits such as chlorophyll degradation and seed coat impermeability, which contribute to seed longevity and vigor. This makes seed maturation a powerful biological system for uncovering how seeds acquire resilience traits with implications for seed conservation and quality improvement.
Research questions:
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How do environmental cues, such as drying and high temperature, shape seed maturation and survival?
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How are seed quality traits, such as chlorophyll degradation and seed coat permeability, regulated during seed maturation?
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Can we harness seed maturation pathways to improve seed quality and resilience?
Our funded projects
1. 'Fine drying: Seed preparation for the dry state' (2021-2025)
In this project we investigate the possible regulatory roles of cellular drying on gene expression, mRNA stability and protein structure and function in seeds.
Project info: This research is funded by the Netherlands Science Foundation (NWO-ENW Veni grant, 2020), Fine drying: Seed preparation for the dry state - Wageningen University & Research
Members: Dr. Mariana Silva Artur (project leader and supervisor), Asif Ahmed Sami (PhD candidate).
2. 'HEAT: Hight temperature effect on Arabidopsis & Tomato seed quality' (2023-2027)
In this collaborative project 'HEAT', we investigate how high temperature during seed maturation affects seed survival and overall seed quality by combining experimental physiology and several omics approaches.
Project info: This project if funded by the Netherlands Science Foundation (Open Technology Programme (Dec, 2022).
Members: Prof. dr. Leónie Bentsink (project leader and supervisor), dr. Mariana A. S. Artur (project supervisor), Lars Bakermans (PhD candidate), Inès Marais (PhD candidate) & Jan Kodde (technician).
3. 'Mechanosensing pathways during seed drying' (2025-2028)
In this project, we integrate seed-drying with transcriptome and phosphoproteome analyses to study mechanosensing and mechanosignaling mechanisms involved in desiccation tolerance. This project is funder by the GreenTE consortium.
Project info: GreenTE - Mechanosensing pathways during seed drying - Wageningen University & Research
Members: Dr. Mariana Silva Artur (project leader and supervisor), Dr. Maria João Nogueira Ferreira (Postdoctoral researcher).
4. 'GreenSeed signaling' (2025-2029)
In this project, we are studying plastid structural, proteomic, and transcriptomic changes during seed maturation, assessing their role in desiccation tolerance, and examining plastid–nucleus communication in determining seed quality.
Project info: Green Seeds: Plastid Transitions During Seed Maturation - Wageningen University & Research
Members: Dr. Mariana Silva Artur & Dr. Charlotte Gommers (project leaders and supervisors), Sabine Kirchner (PhD candidate).