Physiological characterization and gene expression profile of the transport of nitrogen in contrasting cultivars of sugarcane (Saccharum spp) for the process of biological nitrogen fixation

• Grant number: 11/22890-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: June 01, 2012
• End date: July 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Plant Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Vargas de Oliveira Figueira
• Grantee: Layanne Batista Souza
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The increase on demand for renewable energy production has led to increased cultivation of plants used as raw material for biofuel production. The production of sugar cane, that is used for both sugar and ethanol production, has great economic importance to Brazil, and the increase on demand for biofuels has caused the expansion of this crop for marginal soils. As a consequence, the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers (N) is required to maintain the productivity in high levels despite of the impact of fertilizer application in the biosphere and its high energy cost. Further to the need of fertilizer nitrogen, the success of the cultivation of sugarcane in Brazil is based in part on the process of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). Among the beneficial effects of BNF, the increase in total N and in biomass, this has encouraged the use of endophytes in cultivation at the expense of fertilizer nitrogen. In addition to the BNF, plants utilize transporter proteins (AMTs - AMMONIUM TRANSPORTERS and NRTs -NITRATE TRANSPORTERS) to acquire inorganic sources of N in the soil, as ammonium and nitrate. For the time being how the absorption of N is affected during the plant-endophytic association and which are the molecular bases of this interaction are still unknown. The project goal is to characterize physiologically and at the molecular level, the process of absorption of N in sugarcane genotypes contrasting for BNF, studying kinetics of N uptake by the root and quantitative analysis of transcripts of N transporters under the influence of the BNF.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SOUZA, Layanne Batista. Physiological characterization and gene expression profile of the transport of nitrogen in contrasting cultivars for biological nitrogen fixation of sugarcane (Saccharum spp.). 2016. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC) Piracicaba.