The role of Boron in higher Plants

ITQB PhD Seminars

Title: The role of Boron in higher Plants

Speaker: Marta Alves

Laboratory: Plant Biochemistry I

Abstract
Boron is known to be an essential micronutrient for higher plants, for more than 80 years, but only in the last decade it has been shown that it is important for the maintenance of an adequate cell wall structure. However, B deficiency symptoms in plants do not seem completely explained solely by the participation of this element in such structural process. Moreover, B was recently found to be essential for earlier embryonic development in trout, whose cells do not, obviously, possess cell wall. So, B participation goes clearly far beyond the cell wall structure and in order to try to elucidate other roles for B we have been studying responses associated with its deficiency in an important legume crop, Lupinus albus, and in the model-plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Several approaches were used, namely, transcriptomics (Affymetrix Arabidopsis microarrays), proteomics (two-dimensional gel electrophoresis) and metabolomics (nuclear magnetic resonance and high performance liquid chromatography). The analysis of these results is still under way, but it is already evident that several metabolic processes are being affected by B suppression, such as, important pathways that require redox reactions or that lead to amino acid biosynthesis. However, it is difficulty, at moment, to assess which are the direct consequences of B deficiency in higher plants.
 

Short-CV

Academic Carrier
2005: PhD fellowship about “The role of the plant cell wall (CW) proteins in the response to boron deficiency and drought stress in Medicago”.
2004: BIC about “EAN bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) germplasm collection: molecular characterization and biochemical evaluation”.
1997 – 2003: Degree in Chemistry with specialisation in Biochemistry, in Instituto Superior Técnico.

Oral Presentation
2005: Alves M, Francisco R, Martins I, Ricardo C P “Proteomics of the Plant Response to Boron Deficiency”, in the 3rd Annual Meeting of ProCura.
Veloso M M, Pêgo S, Passarinho J A, Louro D, Loureiro R, Portugal C, António A, Ricardo C P, Alves M, Carrilho D, Conceição-Duque M, Baeta J M P “EAN bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) germplasm collection: Molecular characterization and biochemical evaluation”, in the Open Day of Oeiras Campus Collaborative Project.

Papers
2005: Alves M*, Francisco R*, Martins I*, Ricardo C P P (* Equivalent contribution for this work) “Analysis of Lupinus albus leaf apoplastic proteins in response to boron deficiency” (2005) Plant and Soil (in press).