The influence of maturation on gene expression during seed germination and seedling establishment in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.)

• Grant number: 13/04598-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Edvaldo Aparecido Amaral da Silva
• Grantee: Rubiana Falopa Rossi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas (FCA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 14/00533-1 - The influence of maturation on gene expression during germination and seedling establishment of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Soybean seeds with lower quality are more likely to occur in tropical conditions, leading to the occurrence of low productivity and reduced stand. Seed production with high physiological quality is critical to the expansion of soybeans in Brazil. However, advances in seed quality is hampered by conflicting evidence about when the various features of physiological quality of soybean seeds are acquired and lost during maturation and is limited by lack of information about the genes that regulate this phase of the seed and relationship thereafter. Thus, the project aims to identify a set of candidate genes that supposedly govern the physiological quality of soybean seeds during the acquisition of the ability to germinate and associate them with cytological changes and content of ABA. Advances in soybean genomics and development of bioinformatics tools allow the study of the expression of regulatory genes and their putative targets during various stages of seed development. This project will consider an important feature of the quality of seeds, which is acquired during seed development: germinability, which is defined as the ability of the radicle to emerge out of the seed coat and resulting in the formation of a normal seedling. This work will be performed at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, FCA / UNESP - Botucatu-SP in partnership with the Institute on Research and Horticulture and Seeds (RIHS), Angers - France on a sandwich PhD project. The transcriptome will be monitored during germination and seedling establishment in mature and immature seeds and coupled to physiological and biochemical characterization. In parallel, will be performed cytological studies. This information will be important to know the genes associated with seed quality and provide molecular indicators of quality.

Academic Publications

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

ROSSI, Rubiana Falopa. Towards understanding the influence of seed maturation on physiological seed quality in legumes. 2016. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas. Botucatu Botucatu.