About us

We are a medium-sized laboratory consisting of five research groups working on auxin and cytokinin transport and homeostasis, plant hormone-environment interactions, RNA processing, and modeling of phytohormone-mediated cellular processes.

We investigate the mechanisms of action of auxins and cytokinins and their interactions in plant tissue cultures and at the whole plant level. The spectrum of methods and approaches we use ranges from molecular biology (gene cloning and tagging, gene editing, transcriptional profiling, RNAseq), direct and reverse genetics, phenotyping at the cellular and whole-plant level, phytohormones and their metabolism, to advanced methods of fluorescence confocal microscopy. In the following clip you can briefly visit our laboratory.

Our doors are open to motivated students, to whom we offer topics for bachelor, master and doctoral theses, as well as to postdocs from the Czech Republic and abroad. Contact us!

We organize the international symposium Auxins and Cytokinins in Plant Development (ACPD; Auxins and Cytokinins in Plant Development). The last one took place in 2023 and the next one is probably planned for 2027. For those who would like to be informed about the next symposium, we offer an e-mail newsletter.

Group of auxin transport (Leader: Jan Petrášek)

We focus on the molecular mechanism of polar auxin transport and on the ways of its regulation.

Polar auxin transport (PAT) is the process, in which plant hormone auxin is transported in a cell-to-cell manner. The word “polar” refers to the fact that this type of transport is directional, either within the region of a particular tissue or among tissues. The directionality of PAT is maintained by the interplay of diffusion and carrier-mediated transport of auxin across the plasma membrane. The reason why PAT plays a very important role in plant development is that it helps to establish auxin concentration gradients that subsequently regulate gene expression and also many other post-translational processes.

Our recent research is focused on understanding how plasma membrane-located and endomembrane auxin transporters contribute to the overall auxin homeostasis within the cells. Read more…

Group of cytokinin homeostasis regulation

Leader: Klára Hoyerová

We research how the transport and metabolism of cytokinins affect their dynamic distribution in plants and what plant responses they trigger.

Cytokinins are naturally occurring phytohormones that act in concert with auxins to regulate cell division and differentiation and thus efficiently control plant growth and development. A transient enhancement of auxin in relation to cytokinin levels induces root formation while the opposite shift results in shoot formation. The re-establishment of the two hormone quantitative ratios (hormonal homeostasis) is essential for the further development of induced events.

Our research is focused on the metabolic regulation of intra- and extracellular levels of cytokinins and their cooperation with auxins and other phytohormones to understand cytokinin’s physiological role in plants. We are especially interested in the study of pathways and mechanisms down-regulating cytokinin concentrations in plant cells. Read more…

Group of the role of phytohormones in the interaction with the environment

Leader: Radka Vaňková

We focus on the elucidation of plant defense mechanisms, with the aim to contribute to the development of effective strategies to enhance the stress tolerance of plants.

Due to their sessile character, plants had to evolve complex systems of defense against and adaption to variable and often unfavorable environmental conditions. These systems involve mechanisms to sense nutrient abundance or stress conditions and to generate and transduce signals, which result in the modulation of transcription and translation profiles and subsequently of metabolism, leading to effective changes in growth and development. The character of the individual responses depends on the type of stress, its strength, and duration, as well as on the physiological state of the plant, its developmental stage, and the strategy to cope with the particular stress.

Our main interest has been the evaluation of hormone functions in abiotic and biotic stress responses, namely their cross-talk, organ specificity, and dynamics during stress progression. Read more…

Group of mathematical modelling

Leader: Petr Hošek

We use a mathematical modelling approach to unravel mechanisms regulating the auxin and cytokinins’ action in plants.

Mathematical modelling and similar computational approaches are getting increasingly popular in various fields of biology as they offer the possibility to combine multiple datasets and assay results in order to probe hypotheses or measure properties that cannot be addressed in a single experimental design. Down below, we show examples of studies where we employed mathematical modelling methods. Read more…

Group of RNA processing in hormonal pathways

Leader: Kamil Růžička

We aim to use our long-lasting experience with the biology of plant hormones to answer diverse questions relevant to RNA processing.

RNA processing represents an important, highly complex, and poorly understood layer of gene expression regulation in plants. In contrast, plant hormone pathways are relatively well understood. We are a small team that leverages our laboratory's excellent knowledge of plant hormone pathways to investigate the importance of key steps in mRNA processing, particularly alternative splicing (AS) and mRNA m6A methylation. Read more…