DELLA protein and the signaling crosstalk in mycorrhizal Eucalyptus species in response to phosphate

• Grant number: 22/09704-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: October 31, 2022
• End date: April 28, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biology
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Mazzafera
• Grantee: Luana Ferreira Torres
• Supervisor: Miguel Blázquez
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas (IBMCP), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 20/02867-5 - Signalling of P deficiency in eucalyptus, BP.PD

Abstract

Phosphorus (P) is part of essential molecules for life, such as ATP, RNA and DNA molecules, membrane lipids, among others without which plants cannot survive. Phosphate rocks used to produce fertilizers are finite, and the fact that P in the soil is frequently poorly available to plants makes it necessary to maximize the efficiency of P use by plants. More than 80% of terrestrial plant species can establish mutualistic symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, including tree species in the eucalypt group. The establishment of AM symbiosis is highly coordinated and regulated by fungal and plant partners, with signalling molecules being exchanged. DELLA proteins are positive regulators of the development of arbuscules, considered the symbiotic-interface structure, and form complexes with regulatory proteins of the AM symbiosis signalling pathway to promote the expression of genes involved in the establishment of the fungus within the root. Gibberellins (GA) play an essential role in various key plant developmental processes, and DELLA are central elements in the GA signal transduction pathway. P-starvation in plants causes a reduction in bioactive levels of GA and accumulation of DELLA proteins contributing to certain aspects of the P starvation response (PSR) in roots, namely, the suppression of primary root growth and the promotion of root hairs formation. In order to understand how P starvation affects plants that respond differentially to this stress, the present proposal will study the signaling network controlled by DELLA in two eucalyptus species colonized by mycorrhiza in response to P and verify if species differ in their susceptibility to being colonized by AM fungi that have distinct signaling networks. In addition, to study the physiological and molecular responses related to the interaction of endogenous phosphate with phytohormones and DELLA proteins. (AU)