"Plants that live at high altitudes are exposed to a variety of stressful conditions: Low partial pressure of gases, high exposure to UV light, extreme variations in temperatures, strong winds and fluctuating moisture conditions."

But how do plants coordinate all these environmental changes?

Currently, I am an assistant professor in the Plant Stress Resilience group (PSR) at Utrecht University. My research team is focused on the adaptive mechanisms plants use to 'sense' and coordinate environmental signals.

Among all the changes associated with altitude, the differences in the partial pressure of gas and oxygen (pO₂) are uniform across the globe. Oxygen and the oxygen sensing mecahanism, the N-degron pathway, play a key role in altitude adaption during plant development. We envision O₂ and the N-degron pathway as integral players in synchornizing various environmental cues.

Our research interest, currently, is to understand:

-  How do plants integrate all the environmental (oxygen, light, temperature, etc) and endogenous signals (hormones, age, nutritional state, etc) to coordinate the most appropriate developmental program in a given stage?

- What are the adaptive values of growing at different altitudes?

- What central role the PCO branch of the N-degron pathway play in altitude adaption.