Descrizione del progetto
Identificare i fattori di trascrizione critici che regolano la maturazione della fragola
I programmi di selezione della frutta danno spesso priorità ai tratti agronomici, trascurando il ruolo cruciale svolto dalla maturazione nello sviluppo della qualità del sapore. Ciò si traduce in una limitata variabilità genetica all’interno di vari frutti carnosi, tra cui le fragole, poiché le attuali cultivar derivano da una riserva di germoplasma ristretta. A differenza dei frutti climaterici, le fragole sono sottoposte a un processo di maturazione che si arresta quando vengono staccate dalla pianta, non essendo influenzato dall’ormone etilene. Per affrontare questi problemi, il progetto TRANSFR-Q, finanziato dall’UE, utilizzerà la fragola di bosco, un parente selvatico della fragola coltivata, come organismo modello. Il progetto mira a identificare i fattori di trascrizione chiave che regolano la maturazione di questa frutta, convalidandone così il ruolo svolto e a chiarendo le reti di regolazione genica alla base del controllo del processo di maturazione.
Obiettivo
Ripening is the critical step for the development of flavour quality in fruit. This character has significantly declined in many fleshy fruits over recent decades, primarily due to the focus of current breeding programs on agronomic traits such as production, firmness, and postharvest shelf life. This strategy has caused a tunnelling effect on genetic variability in many crops. This is particularly significant in strawberry, where current cultivars are derived from a narrow germplasm stock. A notable feature of strawberry fruit is that undergoes a non-climacteric ripening program independent of the hormone ethylene, in contrast to well studied climacteric fruits such as tomato, where ethylene plays a central role. Therefore, improving fruit flavour in present strawberry varieties requires two important breakthroughs: 1) a precise understanding of non-climacteric fruit ripening regulation that will allow the targeting of relevant quality genes, and 2) the identification of unexploited allelic variants from wild germplasm to be introgressed through the generation of novel breeding lines. The first objective will be achieved by (i) focusing on the sequenced, diploid Fragaria vesca, a wild relative of the cultivated strawberry that will serve as a model, (ii) identifying key transcription factors (TFs) regulating fruit ripening by generating a stage- and tissue-specific gene expression map, (iii) using a candidate gene approach and reverse genetics based on gene silencing and TILLING to verify the role of these TFs, and (iv) defining the gene regulatory networks controlling the ripening process via integration of transcriptomic, metabolomic and ChIP-Seq data obtained from the stably silenced and/or TILLED lines. Finally, TRANSFR-Q plans to use this knowledge, combined with the identification of novel alleles from a core collection of Fragaria germplasm, to transfer flavour quality characters into current strawberry cultivars.
Campo scientifico
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologygenetic engineeringgene therapy
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturefruit growing
- natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicsmathematical analysisfunctional analysis
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryaliphatic compounds
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsgenomes
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-STG - Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
29016 Malaga
Spagna