Quantification of the Yang cycle intermediates and related compounds by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry in plants and the effect of inhibition, mutations and stress on their endogenous levels – Kateřina Cermanová

Kateřina Cermanová is a Ph.D. student at the Laboratory of Growth Regulators (LGR) of Palacký University in Olomouc and the Institute of Experimental Botany. Her research aims are the development of new LC-MS methods for the determination of amino-group containing compounds and methionine cycle metabolites and the application of these new methods in biological experiments.

The financial support (91,000 CZK) from J. Tupý Endowment Fund helped her advance in the development of a new method for the quantification of Yang cycle (a set of reactions that recreates methionine, a highly important aminoacid, and plays a key role in the plant sulphur metabolism) metabolites. One of the most important outputs of the project was learning the technique of cultivation of Marchantia polymorpha, a promising plant model organism, and the transformation and creation of new biosynthetic mutants of this species during an internship at Van de Poel Lab in Leuven, Belgium. The newly acquired experience and knowledge, together with an ongoing collaboration established between LGR and the lab in Belgium, will surely benefit greatly her future research and her lab’s research as well.

 

Development of novel gibberellin derivatives to control sex identity and fruit development in tomato stamenless mutant – Markéta Fuksová

Markéta Fuksová is currently a Ph.D. student of Palacký University in Olomouc. While working on her project (lasting from March 2020 to September 2022), she cooperated with the Laboratory of Growth Regulators of IEB. Her project was focused on the preparation of new compounds derived from plant hormones gibberellines (that are crucial e.g. for the fruit development) and understanding the effects of gibberellines in stamenless tomato mutants. Her work was supported with 42,485 CZK.

Thanks to the financial support, Markéta could do an internship at the renowned Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium in the spring of 2022. Until then, her research was focused mainly on the chemical synthesis and preparation of gibberellines. The internship allowed her to examine these compounds and their effects on the plant in practice.

She discovered that two particular gibberellines could partly restore the formation of stamens in those tomato mutants. In addition, she tested a newly synthetized substance from the group of antigibberellines (substances with the opposite effect than gibberellines) and discovered it had even stronger effect than an antigibberelline traditionally used in growing crops and ornamental plants. This new antigibberelline therefore seems to be promising but deserves further research.

Evaluation of anti-inflammatory and anticancer activity in selected fern species – Antonio Pavičić

Antonio Pavičić is a Ph.D. student of Charles University. His project, lasting from March 2020 until February 2022, was aimed at discovering medicinally applicable substances with anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti-parasitic effects in European fern species. The main goals were to discover such compounds in extracts from selected fern species and test their potential.

The means (100,000 CZK) received from the Fund covered the costs of his research (including an internship at the University of Pretoria in South Africa) and were also used to fund his attendance and poster presentation at an international conference in Varna, Bulgaria.

Antonio Pavičić discovered anti-inflammatory compounds in a few out of 16 species examined, with Dryopteris aemula seeming to be the most promising species for further research. Furthermore, extracts from some species proved toxic for cancerous cells. These extracts thus could have a lot of potential as the colorectal cancer is one of the most common causes of death from cancer. In addition, some extracts had antibacterial effect. His results suggest that European ferns could be medicinally useful but further research will be needed.

Markéta’s and Antonio’s projects not only contributed to expanding our state of knowledge in these fields of plant experimental biology but also helped them to broaden their experience, skills and networking and to grow scientifically and personally.

Do you wish to know more about Markéta’s and Antonio’s research? Listen to their final seminars below and read more about the projects in their final reports that are part of the Annual report 2022 (pages 26-30 and 31-37).