Objective Wheat is one of the most important food crops in the world and understanding its genetics and genome organisation is of great value for genetics and plant breeding purposes. Despite is genome complexity (polyploidy), hexaploid and tetraploid wheats behave as diploids during meiosis. This means that each chromosome only recognises its identical (homologue) to pair and not the related chromosomes (homeologues). There are several pairing homologous (Ph) genes controlling chromosome pairing in wheat during meiosis. The strongest effect is associated with the Ph1 locus, which is located on the long arm on chromosome 5B. Ph1 appears to sense homology prior to the chromosomes coming into contact with each other at early meiosis. Thus, if the chromosomes are true homologues, they perfectly recognise each other, chromatin remodelling is synchronized and allows pairing and recombination to occur. If the chromosomes are homoeologous (related), remodelling is not synchronized and the chromosomes fail to pair and recombine. In the absence of Ph1, all chromosomes can remodel without the requirement for the presence of an identical or near identical chromosome, and this increases the chance of pairing between related chromosomes in addition to pairing between true homologues. In this project we want to analyse deeper this Ph1 behaviour and we also want to exploit ph1 mutants as a tool for wheat breeding programs to promote inter-specific recombination between related wild species. In fact, Hordeum chilense (wild barley with interesting agronomic traits for wheat breeding) introgressions will be developed into durum wheat to transfer desirable agronomic traits from this wild barley into wheat, like resistance to diseases or the increment in carotene content. Introgression lines will be crosses with ph1 mutants to promote inter-specific recombination H. chilense-wheat, reduce the size of the H. chilense chromosome fragment. New wheat varieties will be generated. Fields of science natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticshereditynatural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticschromosomes Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-SG-LS9 - ERC Starting Grant - Applied life sciences and biotechnology Call for proposal ERC-2009-StG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant Host institution AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS EU contribution € 600 000,00 Address CALLE SERRANO 117 28006 Madrid Spain See on map Region Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid Activity type Research Organisations Principal investigator Maria-Pilar Prieto (Dr.) Administrative Contact Ana Maria De La Fuente (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS Spain EU contribution € 600 000,00 Address CALLE SERRANO 117 28006 Madrid See on map Region Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid Activity type Research Organisations Principal investigator Maria-Pilar Prieto (Dr.) Administrative Contact Ana Maria De La Fuente (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data
