Founded in 1975 as the all Union Research Institute of Applied Enzimology, currently,  the Institute of Biotechnology is mainly involved in research and training in the fields of biotechnology and molecular biology, including research and development of recombinant biomedical proteins, genetic and molecular studies of restriction modification phenomenon, developing of viruses diagnostics, epigenetic study of small RNA, drug design and synthesis, bioinformatics.

Biotechnological approaches to improve plant cold tolerance

Spausdinti

Aušra Ražanskienė, Vaiva Kazanavičiūtė, Rita Vorobjovienė, Rokas Abraitis, Aistė Aleliunaitė, Danguolė Kavaliauskaitė

This project is supported by grant Nr. N-07014 from Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation.

In Lithuania, as in other temperate climate countries, plant cold hardiness is one of the major problems for farmers. Nearly every year, it is proven by large reimbursements, paid to farmers to recompense damages from unfavorable climate conditions. Insufficient cold hardiness of cultivated plants reduces the harvest and the harvest stability. Competitive abilities of farmers and attractiveness of agriculture business suffers.

Wild plants in nature have acquired numerous adaptations to survive in various climate conditions. The ability of some species to survive in extreme climate conditions shows that plant possibilities to adapt are considerable but in cultivated plants they could be improved. Some molecular aspects of cold resistance are elucidated in model plants as Arabidopsis thaliana. Our project is intended to use the knowledge of modern molecular biology to improve cold hardiness of plant species having industrial interest.

The main aim of this project is to create transgenic plants with improved cold resistance and cold acclimation. The object is to develop plant species having industrial value, such as winter rape, Miscanthus giganteus and horticultural plants.