Our Research Group, based on a collaboration of the Genomics Research Group of the Institute of Plant Protection, the Plant Developmental Biology and Plant Stress Biology Group of the Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology aims to study the abiotic-biotic stress resilience mechanisms of plants using cutting-edge combined methodologies.

Climate change harms natural habitats and the productivity of crops. By employing genetic, molecular-biology, biochemical, cytological, and high-throughput sequencing tools, we propose to mechanistically study the plant stress responses alleviating the impacts of hostile environment and optimising productivity and biological fitness. We will study (i) host-pathogen interaction dynamics and defence/counter-defence strategies in natural populations, (ii) temperature dependence of virulence and disease development, (iii) transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of host-pathogen interaction and heat response pathways, and (iv) plant productivity changes upon virus infection, temperature stress or combined stress. Our findings will contribute to the understanding of complex environmental stress responses, a “hot spot” of biological research, and accelerate the development of resilient plants with significance in the light of global warming to ensure food security.

Dr. Éva Várallyay Institute of Plant Protection Research Advisor Research keywords: small rna, hts, virome, vsr, virus, grapevine, fruit tree, weed

Dr. Tibor Csorba Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology Senior Research Fellow Research keywords: heat stress response, crop yield, rna polymerase ii, monocot and dicot models (hordeum vulgare, brassicaceae), transcriptional and post-transcriptional control

Dr. Ágnes Dalmadi Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology Research Fellow Research keywords: argonaute proteins, barley, arabidopsis, nicotiana benthamiana, mirna pathway, mirna loading efficiency, heat stress

Dr. Zoltán Havelda Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology Research Advisor Research keywords: plant, rna interference, crop improvement, genome editing, agriculture

Dr. Nikoletta Jaksa-Czotter Institute of Plant Protection Research Fellow Research keywords: grapevine, fruit tree, rnai, high-throughput sequencing (hts), virus diagnostics

Dr. András Kis Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology Senior Research Fellow Research keywords: monocot, transgenic, rnai, crispr, cas9

Dr. Zsuzsanna Nagyné Galbács Institute of Plant Protection Research Fellow Research keywords: fruit tree, rnai, high-throughput sequencing (hts), virus diagnostics, weeds

Dr. Henrik Mihály Szaker Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology Research Assistant Research keywords: plants, bioinformatics, heat stress, rna biology, transcription regulation, genomics

Galbács, Z. N., Agyemang, E. D., Pásztor, G., Takács, A. P., & Várallyay, É*. (2024). Viromes of Monocotyledonous Weeds Growing in Crop Fields Reveal Infection by Several Viruses Suggesting Their Virus Reservoir Role. Plants, 13(18), 2664. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13182664. Q1

Francesco Desiderio, Zsuzsanna Nagyné Galbács, Emese Demian, Vivien Fákó, David Czako, Tünde Varga, Daniel Barath, Nikoletta Jaksa-Czotter, Igor Koloniuk, Eva Varallyay* (2024). Sweet and sour cherry trees growing at new cultivar testing orchard and certified stock collection in Hungary are highly infected with CVA and PrVF, Scientia Horticulturae, Volume 338, 2024, 113820, ISSN 0304-4238, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2024.113820. D1