Project Details
Projekt
Is the immune system required to adapt to flowering time change?
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Juliette de Meaux
Subject Area
Plant Breeding and Plant Pathology
Term
from 2011 to 2018
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 197249720
For effective crop improvement, breeders must be able to select on relevant phenotypic traits without compromising yield. This project proposes to investigate the evolutionary consequences of flowering time modifications on a second trait of major importance for plant breeding: immunity. This will have implications both for understanding cross-talks between flowering time and defense network and for developing efficient breeding strategies.There is clear evidence that plant maturity influences levels and effectiveness of defense. Theoretical models actually predict that changes in life-history can modulate the balance between costs and benefits of immunity. Simultaneously, actors of the immune system have often been observed to alter flowering time.Two alternative and possibly complementary hypotheses can explain this link: genetic constraints due to the pleiotropic action of players in either systems, or co-evolution, if flowering-time changes modulate the cost-benefit balance of immunity. We will conduct field assays in Arabidopsis thaliana, using constructed lines as well as recombinant inbred lines and natural accessions, to differentiate the action of the two explanatory hypotheses. Using transcriptome analyses, we will identify defense genes associating with flowering time modification (f-t-a defense genes). We will quantify their expression along the assay and test whether it varies with both flowering time and fitness. We will further test whether flowering time and immunity interact to determine yield in tomato and potato.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
