Objective
Discriminating differences in day length is critical for many organisms to synchronize reproduction with the most favourable season of the year. Plants have evolved sophisticated time-keeping mechanisms that largely work in leaves, to measure the duration of the day. Upon perception of favourable day lengths, a leaf-borne signal moves to the shoot apical meristem to induce flower formation. Rice is a crop whose yield heavily depends on flowering at the right time, and genetic variation within leaf regulators contributes to diversification of flowering responses among different rice varieties. However, how the shoot apical meristem responds to changes in day length and initiates flowering is currently unknown. High-yielding European rice varieties flower within a limited range of days and expanding such range would prove beneficial to increase yield and expand cultivation to different environments. Our goal is to identify novel genes that modify meristem sensitivity to day length, and breed them into high-yielding cultivars. Together with the gene pool controlling day length responses in the leaves, these novel alleles will allow to design varieties with diverse sensitivities to photoperiod and will distribute the reproductive phase over a broader period of time. This knowledge-based breeding will require preliminary studies in order to identify regulators acting in the shoot apical meristem. To this extent, rice provides an excellent biological model for the availability of powerful genetic and molecular tools. I am proposing a number of genetic and biochemical screens that will allow us to explore the rice genome for genes required at the shoot apical meristem to drive reproductive phase transitions. We will investigate genetic variation in these components, relate it to flowering and adaptation, and use it for introgressing novel alleles into elite germplasm.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture grains and oilseeds cereals
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
ERC-2010-StG_20091118
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Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Host institution
20122 Milano
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.