Flavonoids supplementation effects on the induction of water stress resistance in eucalyptus

• Grant number: 16/10312-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2016
• End date: June 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Molecular Biology
• Principal Investigator: Gonçalo Amarante Guimarães Pereira
• Grantee: Mariana Teixeira Rebouças
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Climate change caused by global warming has encourage the development of studies on water stress resistance in species of interest aiming the genetic improvement in order to improve their production in extreme environments conditions. Currently, Brazil is one of the leaders in the forestry sector due to Eucalyptus and its adaptability, which has been largely cultivated for paper and cellulose production. Also due its high biomass production, Eucalyptus has been an interesting species for further exploration such as the production of second-generation biofuels. Previously studied in our research group, has shown that the supplementation of Eucalyptus with flavonoids causes an improvement on the wood characteristics, also resulting in a differential expression of genes related to stress response. This present project aims to analyze if the supplementation with flavonoid narigenin-chalcone modifies the expression of genes on the metabolism, increasing specifically, the water stress resistance in Eucalyptus plants and Arabidopsis thaliana. The results of this investigation may contribute to collect relevant information for further improvement of the species and optimization on the lignocellulosic biomass production.