Dr. Zoltán Havelda - MATE Research
Overview
Dr. Zoltán Havelda investigates of the role and molecular mechanism of RNA interference (RNAi) in model and economically important crop plants. He specialises on the utilization of genome editing for basic and applied sciences predominantly in barley and other monocot crops. He is the head of Plant Developmental Biology group in MATE GBI. The PI has a long-standing experience on investigating the fundamental role RNAi in plants in developmental processes and plant-virus interactions. In recent years he is active in researching barley genome editing in relation to the role of RNAi in stress responses and the improvement economically important traits. He has experience in several specific technologies such as in situ hybridization techniques, FPLC gel-chromatography. In the SCOPUS, he has 50 publications with 3908 citations. H-index 27.
Research keywords:
Publications
1/ Várallyay E., Burgyan J. and Havelda Z., MicroRNA detection by northern blotting using locked nucleic acid probe., 2008, Nature Protocols, Q1 (IF:4,17 ) 3:(2) 190-196. doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2007.528
2/ Várallyay E, Válóczi A, Agyi A, Burgyán J and Havelda Z, Plant virus-mediated induction of miR168 is associated with repression of ARGONAUTE1 accumulation., 2010, The EMBO Journal, D1, (IF:10,124), 20;29(20):3507-19. doi.org/10.1038/emboj.2010.215
3/ Várallyay É, Oláh E, Havelda Z, Independent parallel functions of p19 plant viral suppressor of RNA silencing required for effective suppressor activity., 2014, Nucleic Acids Res., D1 (IF:8,278), 42(1):599-608. doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkt846
4/ Kis A, Hamar É, Tholt G, Bán R, Havelda Z., Creating highly efficient resistance against wheat dwarf virus in barley by employing CRISPR/Cas9 system., 2019, Plant Biotechnol J., D1 (IF:8,14), 17: 1004-1006. doi.org/10.1111/pbi.13077
5/Ágnes Dalmadi, Fabio Miloro, Jeannette Bálint, Éva Várallyay, Zoltán Havelda, Controlled RISC loading efficiency of miR168 defined by miRNA duplex structure adjusts ARGONAUTE1 homeostasis, 2021, Nucleic Acids Research, D1 (IF:16,476), 49, (22): 12912–12928, doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab1138
Projects
1/ Establishment of genome editing in barley and other crop species for research and crop improvement (NKFI grant)
The economically important barley (Hordeum vulgare) will be used to generate CRISPR/Cas9 edited plants. The genome editing targets will be selected to analyse basic biological processes and assess the efficiency of the technology in trait improvement, such as virus resistance and enhanced seed development. In long term, the generated basic knowledge can be translated into development genetic approaches leading to the improvement of economically important traits of currently used important local cultivars.
2/ Biology of RNA interference in model and crop plants: molecular link between biogenesis and action of small regulatory RNAs (NKFI grant)
Our recent experiments revealed that the biogenesis of miRNAs is not always resulted in the incorporation of miRNAs in the executor complexes. Our data indicate that this phenomenon is linked to the secondary structures of miRNA precursors. With the support of the proposed grant we would like to investigate the role of RNAi machinery connected proteins and secondary structural elements of miRNA precursors in determining the loading ability of small RNAs in the executor complexes. The gained results will be confirmed and further investigated in crop plants such as pepper and barley. From practical point of view these results will help to improve the efficiency of a widely used artificial miRNA molecular biology tool and will help the identification of small RNA species suitable for improving desired traits of crop plants.
