Molecular genetics of fructan metabolism in grasses

• Grant number: 14/24655-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: July 01, 2015
• End date: February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Pastures and Forage Crops
• Principal Investigator: Luis Felipe Prada e Silva
• Grantee: Luis Felipe Prada e Silva
• Host Investigator: German Spangenberg
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: La Trobe University, Australia

Abstract

Forage grasses, especially tropical C4 grasses, have low levels of water-soluble carbohydrates, therefore leading to low efficiency of microbial protein production, and below the adequate level of fermentable organic matter that would be used by ruminants. Furthermore, the low level of soluble carbohydrates is prejudicial for conservation of forages as silage. Fructans are water-soluble oligomers and polymers of fructose, and accumulate in many plants, especially temperate grasses. In grasses, the level and composition of fructans were increased in stems and leaf sheaths of genetically engineered plants for the expression of genes fructosyltransferases. This project aims to develop scientific knowledge for modulation by genetic engineering of the synthesis of water-soluble carbohydrates in forage grasses; evaluation under field conditions of transgenic F1 progenies for stability and expression of the desired trait of high fructan content in the leaves; and development of new simple and efficient procedure for high-throughput analysis of the composition of water soluble carbohydrates in plants. To achieve these goals, experiments will be conducted to generate transgenic plants with high content of water-soluble sugars, molecular analysis of transgenic plants, analysis of the level of transcripts by qPCR, field evaluation of transgenic plants, and validation of a simpler and efficient method for analyzing the composition of soluble sugars in forage plants.