Comparative transcriptomic analysis of organs with controversial morphology ("morphological misfits") in a group of carnivorous plants with a minimal genome: Utricularia

• Grant number: 25/01761-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: July 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany
• Principal Investigator: Vitor Fernandes Oliveira de Miranda
• Grantee: Saura Rodrigues da Silva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/10639-5 - Center for Research on Biodiversity Dynamics and Climate Change, AP.CEPID

Abstract

The vast majority of living organisms have body architecture that seems to follow rules called bauplan. These bauplans are artificial classifications that we assign to the "units" that make up an organism, such as humans, arms, legs, heads, and for plants, stems, leaves and flowers. However, there are organisms that do not follow these traditional organs delimitations called "morphological misfits organisms". In this context, the carnivorous plants of the family Lentibulariaceae are examples of this case, since the delimitation between leaves and stems is not a simple task, particularly among the Utricularia species. Thus, this project proposes the identification and comparison between genes and their expression related to root, leaf, stem, traps and stolon, with the sequencing of putative organs in the species Utricularia reniformis and other publicly available Utricularia species in comparison to Arabidopsis thaliana, in order to search for possible relations between genes and its morphology. In this project, we will perform the transcriptome comparison from different developmental phases, in different structures (putative organs) of a non-model species, Utricularia reniformis. It is important to stress that the results may shed light not only on the biology of Utricularia and Lentibulariaceae, but also important to Viridiplantae morphology, whether or not they are considered "morphological misfits", and consequently contribute to explaining important aspects of the ontogenesis and pattern morphology of species of agronomic interest and genetic improvement. (AU)