The genomic integrity of any organism is constantly threatened by various intrinsic and extrinsic stresses. Thus, to maintain this integrity, the sophisticated DNA damage response (DDR) network is rapidly activated upon DNA damage. One group of novel players in fine-tuning of the DDR are long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), which have attracted increasing attention, particularly in humans due to their oncogenic character. However, their role in the plant DDR is still poorly understood. Recently, I identified the lncRNA LINDA in the model plant A. thaliana. LINDA is strongly induced by DNA damage, in dependency of several DDR key regulators. Strikingly, LINDA deficient plants are unable to recover from DNA damage-induced root meristem collapse. However, how LINDA maintains the root meristem integrity is still unknown. Therefore, elucidating its molecular function is my ultimate scientific goal. To achieve this goal, I will (1) investigate the importance of the cis-regulatory elements and secondary structures of LINDA for its accumulation and functionality by extensive complementation analysis; (2) dissect the impact of LINDA on different DDR responses using advanced live cell imaging; (3) identify and characterize the cis- and trans-regulated LINDA target genes by single-cell RNA sequencing and interactomics studies.