Objetivo
Reproduction is one of the most important events in an organism. In crops, it governs seed yields, viability and organoleptic properties. The regulation of reproduction happens in plants at the flowering stage.
Thus understanding of the whole process, including as initiation, signalling, growth and induction of second metabolites biosynthesis during flower development is necessary to clarify the mechanism of plant reproduction. Cytochrome P450 (P450) is one of the largest enzyme families in higher plant. P 450s are involved in the biosynthesis of various secondary metabolites related to defence responses or developmental events, as key monooxygenases.
In my host institution, a global P450 transcriptome analysis demonstrated that more than 120 P450 genes are expressed during flower development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Among them, five genes are expressed in the tapetum during the early stages of the pollen development. Three of these genes are activated upon insect attack. Thus their products might be involved in signalling and regulation of pollen development, or synthesis of physical barriers in higher plant.
My goal is to figure out 1) what is their biochemical substrate, and 2) what is the biological role of their products in plant development and defence. This will be achieved using existing silenced and over-expressing mutants of the genes of interest for metabolic profiling, analysis of the pollen structure and biology (viability, germination), and testing for insect resistance.
Completely successful work should establish a correlation between P450 expression, metabolic activity, pollen composition and properties, and variable defence response. It should therefore help understanding co-evolution of development and defence.
Ámbito científico
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesevolutionary biology
- natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicsmathematical analysisfunctional analysis
- natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyentomology
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryamines
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
Palabras clave
Convocatoria de propuestas
FP6-2005-MOBILITY-7
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