Using systems biology approach to develop a model for whole plant functioning

• Grant number: 15/13479-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: September 01, 2015
• End date: March 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany - Pant Physiology
• Agreement: Microsoft Research
• Principal Investigator: Marcos Silveira Buckeridge
• Grantee: Eveline Queiroz de Pinho Tavares
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Company: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências (IB)
• Associated research grant: 11/52065-3 - Using systems biology approach to develop a model for whole plant functioning, AP.PITE

Abstract

The adaptive responses of sessile organisms to environmental changes are complex and unknown. With the development of advanced technologies to deal with adaptive processes, the modern approaches include transcriptional, proteomic, metabolomics and physiological views of biological phenomena. However, the analyses of each of these scales in an isolated form are not yet capable to describe biological phenomena precisely using a systems approach. Thus, the project in which the work plan is inserted refers to the production of data in the above mentioned scales aiming at integrating distinct information obtained with different techniques in the context of systems biology. Consequently, it is possible to obtain results that could form a bigger and more realistic picture of adaptive processes that occur in plant tissues. The present proposal focus on the transcriptional phenomenon related to the formation of Aerenchyma in sugarcane. In this process, the cell wall is attacked by enzymes ina precise fashion, activating key elements in the hydrolysis of structural polysaccharides that have been identified by Dr. Marcos Buckeridge´s group. The identification of these key elements in cell wall modification are of fundamental interest for bioenergy. Uma of the analyses of gene expression is already going on in the lab and consists in the processing of the transcriptome in segments of roots of sugarcane during the formation of aerenchyma. The pipelines for analyses of these data are now at the final stage of consolidation. In this context, the present plan of activities for the postdoc fellowship will require the comparative analysis of the mounting and mapping already performed so that differentially expressed gene lists are assembled and the data is published. A second transcriptional analysis intends to sequence microRNA that will be extracted from the same samples. All the reagents are in place and the extractions will start immediately. With these data, another layer of organization (epigenetics) will be included for integration in the project as a whole. The analysis of the regulatory process via miRNA is extremely important because in many cases it consists of a crucial level of regulation of physiological processes in plants, having inclusively a key role in root development. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

LATARULLO, MARIANA B. G.; TAVARES, EVELINE Q. P.; MALDONADO, GABRIEL P.; LEITE, DEBORA C. C.; BUCKERIDGE, MARCOS S.. Pectins, Endopolygalacturonases, and Bioenergy. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE, v. 7, SEP 20 2016. (15/13479-8, 08/57908-6)

TAVARES, EVELINE Q. P.; BUCKERIDGE, MARCOS S.. Do plant cell walls have a code?. Plant Science, v. 241, p. 286-294, DEC 2015. (15/13479-8, 11/52065-3)

DE PINHO TAVARES, EVELINE QUEIROZ; MATTOS MARTINS, MARINA CAMARA; GRANDIS, ADRIANA; ROMIM, GRAYCE H.; PIOVEZANI, AMANDA RUSISKA; GAIARSA, JONAS WEISSMANN; BUCKERIDGE, MARCOS SILVEIRA. Newly identified miRNAs may contribute to aerenchyma formation in sugarcane roots. PLANT DIRECT, v. 4, n. 3, MAR 2020. (15/13479-8, 11/52065-3, 08/57908-6, 14/50884-5)