Environmental cues represent the major hardships to crop productivity worldwide. Therefore, elucidation of plant stress adaptation networks has become a main biotechnology research objective. Reciprocal interaction between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and auxin signalling pathways are the main players of the stress induced morphogenetic responses, which modulate plant growth and development to attenuate deleterious effects of stress. On the other hand, environmental factors primary affect photosynthesis, compromising plant growth and yield. Basically, photosynthesis acts as global stress sensors activating photosynthesis adaptation and stress responses, which directly affect ROS and auxin homeostasis. Although ROS-auxin interplay is being intensively studied, the mechanisms underlying their crosstalk are poorly understood. Moreover, the role of chloroplasts on ROS-auxin interplay is largely unknown. In this sense, the proposed project is an important breakthrough in the elucidation of ROS-auxin network convergence points and in its interaction with photosynthesis upon stress. The project aims to decipher how environmental and developmental signals are integrated by ROS-auxin crosstalk and to unravel the underlying mechanisms that synchronize stress-induced growth reorientation and photosynthesis adaptation, vital for plant survival.

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