Hely Häggman’s research group and Dr. Alexander Kastaniotis at the University of Oulu, and Dr. Pauli Kallio’s group at ETH, Zurich, Switzerland.
The objective of the research is to investigate the role of phytoglobins (non-symbiotic (Hb) and truncated hemoglobin (TrHb)) genes in plants exposed to oxidative stress, oxygen deprivation stress and nitrosative stress.
We study both the endogenous Hbs and use heterologous Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) lines as an experimental system. We have two model organisms an herbaceous plant, Arabidopsis and a tree, Populus (P. tremula x tremuloides) as well as VHb-expressing lines of both species.
Our hypotheses encompass the role of plant phytoglobins at gene expression and regulation level, localization of Hbs at cellular and subcellular level and their physiological functions.