| Grant number: | 14/10407-3 |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |
| Start date: | August 01, 2014 |
| End date: | February 28, 2018 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Botany - Pant Physiology |
| Agreement: | Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) |
| Principal Investigator: | Camila Caldana |
| Grantee: | Carolina Cassano Monte Bello |
| Host Institution: | Centro Nacional de Pesquisa em Energia e Materiais (CNPEM). Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brasil). Campinas , SP, Brazil |
| Associated research grant: | 12/19561-0 - Regulation of plant growth by the Target of rapamycin (TOR) pathway, AP.BIOEN.JP |
Abstract Plant growth and development are maintained by a complex network controlled by both environment factors (such as light and nutrient availability) and molecular signaling pathways that interact with each other. One of the best examples is the "Target Of Rapamycin" (TOR) kinase, which plays a fundamental role in regulating cell growth and energy metabolism. Integrative analysis of transcript and metabolomics profiles in mutants with conditional silencing of TOR in the model plant Arabidopsis revealed a central role of this kinase not only in the carbon/nitrogen balance, but also in energy metabolism. Based on these observations, our research group is proposing a role for TOR as a potent metabolic switch, which can regulate both growth and nutrient partitioning, showing a potential biotechnological route in increasing biomass production and optimizing the carbon partitioning to produce biofuels. In this project, we intend to investigate the relationships between environmental factors and TOR signaling pathway in carbon allocation. This analysis will be performed in a comparative manner using the model plants with different mechanisms of photosynthesis, Arabidopsis thaliana (C3) and Setaria italica (C4). The influence of photoperiod and temperature on TOR kinase will be assessed through a combination of physiological, biochemical analysis (starch content, catalytic activity of important enzymes in primary metabolism), metabolic profile (including flux analysis) and gene expression. It is expected that the results generated will assist in elucidating the mode of action of TOR in the regulation of energy metabolism and plant growth, opening new perspectives for the manipulation of carbon allocation in plant species of great agronomic importance, such as sugarcane. (AU) | |
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