The Mystery: When plants face dangerous light stress, their chloroplasts send "emergency signals" to the rest of the cell within minutes—but we don't know what these signals are! This communication system, called TraDeRS (Translation-dependent Retrograde Signaling), could revolutionize how we engineer stress-tolerant crops.

What You'll Discover: You'll investigate two competing hypotheses about how chloroplasts "talk" to the cell:

The Energy Pathway: Does excess sugar export trigger stress responses?

The Redox Pathway: Do changing chemical conditions control protein production?

What You'll Learn:

Advanced lab techniques: Western blotting, qPCR, metabolomics, ribosome analysis

Plant genetics: Working with mutant lines and transgenic plants

Biochemistry: Measuring protein modifications and cellular energy states

Data analysis: Interpreting complex molecular datasets

Your Role: You'll treat plants with light stress, extract proteins and RNA, measure critical signaling molecules, and analyze how different mutants respond. You'll be testing a genuine scientific mystery that could lead to breakthrough findings!

Timeline: 1-2 semesters (flexible scheduling around coursework)

Why This Matters: Understanding plant stress communication could help develop crops that survive climate change, drought, and extreme weather—directly impacting global food security.

Perfect for students interested in: Plant biology, biotechnology, agriculture, molecular biology, biochemistry, or environmental science, more suitable to master or honours.