At first sight, crop yields and human variation have little in common. However, both are the product of genetic diversity, a fundamental requirement for the adaptation of organisms to changing environmental conditions. The biological process of meiosis is key to this diversity, reshuffling the information encoded by paternal and maternal chromosomes to create reproductive cells with unique genetic instructions, such as the sperm or egg cells in humans. “Despite being fundamental to sexual reproduction, meiosis is incredibly sophisticated and many mechanistic details are still poorly understood”, says group leader Peter Schlögelhofer. “This provides us with the opportunity to try to answer difficult, but fundamental questions, an intellectual journey of discovery that will shape our research in the coming years”.
The Schlögelhofer lab is also part of a Special Research Program, funded by the Austrian Science Fund, that will tackle the gaps in our understanding of meiosis. The scientists will, on the one hand, attempt to reconstitute biochemical reactions that occur during meiosis with purified, recombinant proteins, and, on the other, validate their findings in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. “A. thaliana is the perfect model to test our in vitro-derived hypotheses in a living organism”, explains Peter Schlögelhofer. “However, it is challenging and time consuming to create and analyze complex genetic mutants in plants. I see my promotion as an opportunity to pursue such projects”, he says. The group also plans to study the impact of microplastics and climate warming on plant meiosis. “Both projects are related to our core interest of meiosis, but have a more applied dimension. I really hope that we can bring them to life, as these stresses have a negative impact on plant fertility and thus on food security”, says Peter Schlögelhofer.