Cadmium-induced transgenerational effects on tomato: complementary approaches

• Grant number: 22/02110-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: July 15, 2022
• End date: July 09, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Antunes de Azevedo
• Grantee: Marcia Eugenia Amaral de Carvalho
• Supervisor: Patrick H. Brown
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 20/00133-4 - Cadmium-induced transgenerational effect on plants: a parental gift for progeny, BP.PD

Abstract

The problems related to the cadmium (Cd) toxicity on plants are increasing every year; however, the number of tolerant species to this metal is extremely limited. Therefore, the discovery of tomato (which is both a plant crop and model species) cultivars with high tolerance to Cd is a relevant matter, since they can be used in both plant breeding programs and studies for identification and understanding of tolerance mechanisms against to Cd-induced toxicity. In the regular project, tomato cultivars contrasting for tolerance/sensitivity degree to Cd-induced toxicity were evaluated through different analyses, in a transgenerational context. In order to complement results already obtained/ or that will be obtained by the Brazilian group, a partnership with Prof. Patrick H. Brown from University of California (UC Davis, United States of America) is proposed here. The UC Davis is classified as the world's best university in "Plant and Animal Science", and Prof. Patrick Brown is a reference for people studying effects of abiotic stresses on plant nutrition and physiology. Our aims are: (i) to determine the cellular elemental distribution in tomato seedlings, (ii) to identify the potential Cd-induced changes in the distribution of elements, at cell level, in the progeny (at seedling stage) of tomato plants that were grown in Cd-contaminated soil, and (iii) to investigate if these potential changes are related to modifications in the content of photosynthetic and accessory pigments in the progeny of tomato plants that were cultivated in soil with different Cd levels. To this end, seeds (which were produced by control and Cd-treated plants) will be cultivated for obtention of seedlings that will be used for the proposed evaluations. Data will be subjected to analysis of variance (p d 0.05), and treatments' means will be were compared by Tukey test (± d 0.05). In addition, principal component analysis (PCA) will be performed on data. These results will complement those that were obtained in Brazil, not only allowing the publication of papers (due to more complete, robust data) in excellent scientific journals, but also enlarging our understand about Cd-induced transgenerational effects on plants. This information can be used to guide biotechnological and crop management programs in order to maintain or even improve plant productivity under heavy metal stress. (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)

CARVALHO, MARCIA E. A.; AGATHOKLEOUS, EVGENIOS; NOGUEIRA, MARINA L.; BRUNETTO, GUSTAVO; BROWN, PATRICK H.; AZEVEDO, RICARDO A.. Neutral-to-positive cadmium effects on germination and seedling vigor, with and without seed priming. JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS, v. 448, p. 11-pg., 2023-01-25. (22/08845-9, 22/02110-7, 20/00133-4)