Iranian researcher Habib MotieGhader joins ERIT PSII (UPRI) to study the vaccinal effect of UV-C flashes on plants

What if the analysis of the communication network between messenger RNAs confirmed the vaccination role of UV-C flashes on plants? The ERIT PSII (UPRI) has been joined by an Iranian researcher, Habib MotieGhader, who has been invited to work on this subject.

Although UV-C radiation is known to cause significant stress, flashes of UV-C light can also induce beneficial responses in plants. Exposure to UV-C flashes can enhance natural defence mechanisms against disease and tolerance to stress. These beneficial effects are the result of sophisticated response and adaptation mechanisms revealed by transcriptomics studies carried out by researchers at the ERIT PSII - Plant Science, Interactions and innovation (UPRI). It has emerged that one of the pathways by which plants regulate their response to UV-C is via the complex network of non-coding RNAs, in particular through the ceRNA communication network (competing endogenous RNA).

The project, for which ERIT PSII has received the support of Professor Habib MotieGhader from 1 February to 31 July 2025, aims to study the ceRNA communication network in which lncRNAs (long non-coding RNA), miRNA (microRNA) and mRNA (messenger RNA) interact to regulate gene expression in plants treated with UV-C flashes. Exposure to UV-C induces complex responses in which lncRNAs act as sponges for miRNAs, preventing them from binding and degrading target mRNAs. This ceRNA network thus controls gene expression at all levels: transcriptional, post-transcriptional, translational and post-translational. This project explores how these interactions influence the biological processes, molecular functions and response mechanisms of plants to UV-C, by identifying the genes hub and regulators involved. This in-depth understanding should pave the way for new methods of improving disease resistance and plant tolerance to stresses such as drought and excessively high temperatures. It could provide the basis for the innovative idea that it is possible to vaccinate plants against aggression and stress. What is at stake is nothing less than the ability to ensure food security, which is threatened by climate change.

The two principal researchers involved in this project

Seyed Mehdi JAZAYERIThe initiator and leader of this project is a teacher-researcher (ATER) at Avignon University, responsible for bioinformatics and computational biology analyses within the PSII, IAgES team, and a teacher of plant biology. Previously, he taught plant biology at Payame Noor University, Karaj-Iran, for ten years and was head of the biology department. As head and principal researcher, Seyed led a national project on large-scale cultivation (in vitro and in situ) and the biodiversity of the Papaver sp. in order to identify species producing medicinal alkaloids. D. in biological sciences from the National University of Colombia and a researcher at Cenipalma, he carried out his thesis as a physiological-transcriptomic-molecular project on the genes involved in oil palm responses to drought as biomarkers, in order to identify tolerant and sensitive genotypes as well as those with a high production capacity. He carried out a post-doctorate at CIRAD, working on the Oil Palm Genome Project (OPGP), analysing the genomes and transcriptomes of various populations of oil palm.Elaeis sp. in order to select productive and tolerant genotypes. His second post-doctorate, at Aix-Marseille University, focused on the Archi-Old-Heart project, exploring the genes and biomarkers of cardiac ageing in Drosophila and humans with a view to predicting heart disease. During these post-doctorates, he developed his skills in bioinformatics methods, omics analyses and biological interpretations on various model and non-model living organisms. Seyed has published more than 40 articles and book chapters.

The Pr Habib MotieGhader D. in Bioinformatics under the supervision of Professor Ali Masoud-Nezhad at the University of Tehran in Iran in 2017. He then joined BioQuant at the University of Heidelberg as a visiting researcher in 2019. In 2020, he carried out his postdoctoral work in computational genomics at the TAGC Network Biology Group in Marseille, France. In 2021, he returned to Iran and joined the biology group at the Islamic Azad-Branch University in Tabriz, where he is currently an assistant professor. He was head of the biology department from 2023 to 2024. Habib MotieGhader has trained more than 20 graduates, many of whom have become successful junior researchers abroad and in Iran. Currently, thanks to funding from the EUR ImplanteusHe is a senior researcher at the Institut AgES - Avignon University. His main areas of research are

• Computational cancer genomics
• Biological networks
• Development of network-based biomarkers
• Application of deep learning in biomedicine
• Analysis of isolated cells
• Digital pathology and integration of omics techniques
• Genome-wide analysis of non-coding RNAs
• Bioinformatics and development of original algorithms.