Tilling for mutation discovery in epigenetic regulators involved in tomato fruit development

• Grant number: 15/09303-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: June 09, 2015
• End date: September 10, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Plant Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Fabio Tebaldi Silveira Nogueira
• Grantee: Antoine Lucien Fernand Gady
• Supervisor: Rothan Christophe
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Biologie du Fruit et Pathologie, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 14/16268-5 - TILLING for mutation discovery in epigenetic regulators involved in tomato fruit development., BP.PD

Abstract

Tomato is the model plant for research on fruit development. So far research efforts have focused on understanding fruit development and ripening through the study and exploitation of genetic diversity: how the DNA sequence varies from one accession to another. Until now little efforts have been put into understanding the role of epigenetics into fruit development and ripening. It was demonstrated only recently that DNA methylation in the promoter region of RIN could control RIN expression and therefore control ripening time (Zhong et al., 2013). Similarly, Ferreira et al. (Ferreira e Silva et al., 2014) showed that the miR156 is involved in the maintenance of the meristematic state of ovary tissue and therefore control the early stages of tomato fruit development. In tomato, we do not have mutant lines for the major protein involved in neither small RNA maturation nor DNA methylation process. In the present research proposal we intend to identify, with the TILLING method, multiple mutations in genes from two key gene families active in small RNA processing: AGO and DCL and in two genes involved in DNA methylation and Histone acetylation: MET1 and HDA1 respectively. We have established a scientific collaboration with the group of Dr. Christophe Rothan at the INRA Bordeaux in France. Dr. Rothan developed a tomato TILLING population, a resource unavailable in Brazil. We propose to go to France to work for three months at the INRA Bordeaux on the screen of that tomato Micro-Tom population in order to identify mutant alleles for our candidate genes. (AU)