Genes associated to sucrose content

• Grant number: 06/01122-9
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Support for Intellectual Property Rights and Licensing (PAPI/Nuplitec)
• Start date: August 01, 2006
• End date: August 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Molecular Biology
• Principal Investigator: Glaucia Mendes Souza
• Grantee: Glaucia Mendes Souza
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 00/07425-7 - Identification of signal transduction components of the sugarcane genome, AP.GEN

Abstract

Modern sugarcane cultivars are complex hybrids resulting from crosses among several species of the Saccharum genus. Traditional breeding methods have been extensively employed in different countries along the past decades to develop varieties with increased sucrose yield, and resistant to plagues and diseases. Conventional varietal improvement is, however, limited by the narrow pool of suitable markers. In this sense, molecular genetics is seen as a promising tool to assist in the process of molecular marker identification. The present invention concerns the identification of 203 genes associated with sucrose content in sugarcane plants. The genes were found to be differentially expressed when high sucrose and low sucrose plants and populations of plants were compared. The expression data was obtained using cDNA microarray and quantitative PCR technologies. The genes identified can be used to identify, distinguish, characterize and/or develop plants with increased sucrose content. (AU)

Filed patent(s) as a result of this research project