Studying the desiccation and frost tolerance of Haberlea rhodopensis

Éva Sárvári, Ádám Solti (Department of Plant Physiology and Molecular Plant Biology) and Áron Keresztes (Department of Plant Anatomy), in collaboration with the Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences are studying the desiccation and frost tolerance of the tertiary relict species Haberlea rhodopensis.

Previous studies were financed by the researcher mobility program of the Hungarian and Bulgarian Academies of Sciences, whereas from 2019 the research grant of the Bulgarian National Research Found also contributes.

Due to drought and inhomogeneous pattern of the precipitation on agricultural lands agricultural plants have to cope serious environmental challenges that are also responsible for a huge loss is crop yield.

Since Haberlea rhodopensis plants are able to survive the full desiccation of their tissues without any serious damage, the understanding of this mechanism would help us to make a step forward in protecting agricultural plants against the effect of drought, too. Moreover, their unique cold tolerance mechanism could also lead to new perspectives.