Physiological and biochemical responses of three species of tropical legumes to climatic change

• Grant number: 07/59708-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2008
• End date: April 30, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany - Pant Physiology
• Principal Investigator: Marcos Silveira Buckeridge
• Grantee: Marcos Silveira Buckeridge
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Alterations in temperature and in the pluvial regime related to the emission of gases that cause the greenhouse effect represent a new threat to global biodiversity. Legumes are one of the most important families in the domain of the Atlantic and tropical forests, both for the number of species and individually in the structure of Atlantic forest. Studying five species of legumes, our group observed that the pattern of physiological performance of each species is related to the position occupied by the plant in the process of ecological succession. This data indicates that the successional process could be influenced by the management of the water absorbed by each species. Since the end of the decade of the 1980s, studies have shown that plants respond to the increase in concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere with a reduction in the number of stomata. Analyses of increase or decease in the number of stomata in a leaf are carried out by calculating the stomata index or density, and the results are taken by the literature as an indication that the plants have been responding to these alterations. This knowledge is widely disseminated throughout the scientific community, but to-date very little is known about the responses of the species of tropical ecosystems to growing increases in this gas. In the present proposal we will use an intraphyletic approach, which seeks to conduct studies in greater depth into the physiological (photosynthetic and morphological) and anatomical responses of the species of legumes of different successional groups: Sesbania virgata (pioneer), Schyzolobium parayba (initial secondary) and Hymenaea courbaril (late secondary) to climatic changes, through the study of the combined effects of raised CO2 and temperature. For this purpose, the plants will be cultivated in conditions and concentrations of CO2 and temperature expected in the second half of the XXI century. Measurements will be taken of the allocation and accumulation of biomass, of photosynthetic behavior, measurements of C/N relationship, analyses of structural and non-structural sugars and analyses of stomata index. With the results obtained it is intended to examine in greater depth and improve the precision of models of behavior of different species of legumes, so as to predict with greater precision the responses to climate changes occurring on the planet. (AU)

Scientific publications

(6)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

TONINI, PATRICIA PINHO; PURGATTO, EDUARDO; BUCKERIDGE, MARCOS SILVEIRA. Effects of abscisic acid, ethylene and sugars on the mobilization of storage proteins and carbohydrates in seeds of the tropical tree Sesbania virgata (Leguminosae). ANNALS OF BOTANY, v. 106, n. 4, p. 607-616, OCT 2010. (98/05124-8, 07/59708-1)

DAMATTA, FABIO M.; GRANDIS, ADRIANA; ARENQUE, BRUNA C.; BUCKERIDGE, MARCOS S.. Impacts of climate changes on crop physiology and food quality. Food Research International, v. 43, n. 7, p. 10-pg., 2010-08-01. (07/59708-1)

DAMATTA, FABIO M.; GRANDIS, ADRIANA; ARENQUE, BRUNA C.; BUCKERIDGE, MARCOS S.. Impacts of climate changes on crop physiology and food quality. Food Research International, v. 43, n. 7, SI, p. 1814-1823, AUG 2010. (07/59708-1)

ARENQUE, BRUNA C.; GRANDIS, ADRIANA; POCIUS, OLIDAN; DE SOUZA, AMANDA P.; BUCKERIDGE, MARCOS S.. Responses of Senna reticulata, a legume tree from the Amazonian floodplains, to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration and waterlogging. TREES-STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION, v. 28, n. 4, p. 1021-1034, AUG 2014. (07/59708-1)

BUCKERIDGE, MARCOS SILVEIRA. Seed Cell Wall Storage Polysaccharides: Models to Understand Cell Wall Biosynthesis and Degradation. Plant Physiology, v. 154, n. 3, p. 1017-1023, NOV 2010. (98/05124-8, 07/59708-1)

BRANDAO, A. D.; DEL BEM, L. E. V.; VINCENTZ, M.; BUCKERIDGE, M. S.. Expression pattern of four storage xyloglucan mobilization-related genes during seedling development of the rain forest tree Hymenaea courbaril L.. Journal of Experimental Botany, v. 60, n. 4, p. 1191-1206, MAR 2009. (04/10159-8, 07/59708-1)