[SCAN] HeatProtecTom: effect of heat stress on sexual plant reproduction of tomato
Title: HeatProtecTom: effect of heat stress on sexual plant reproduction of tomato
Speaker: Maria Flores
Abstract: It is known that climate change has a strong impact on sexual plant reproduction and consequently on seed yield and fruit production. However, its effect on the progamic phase (when pollen tube grows through the transmitting tissue of the pistil to deliver two sperm cells to the embryo sac for double fertilization) it is not known.
In this FCT project, we will try to identify potential deregulations of transcripts and/or protein levels in the male gametophyte during the progamic phase that lead to a reduced fertilization efficiency. We will study these effects on the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana and on an important crop like tomato, with the aim of distinguishing conserved responses from species-specific ones.
The combination of cell biology and microscopy technics, together with Fluorescent-Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) and –omic studies will help us to identify candidate genes with the potential to alleviate heat stress responses of male gametophytes during the progamic phase.
In this way, the main goals will be to gain insights on the impact of heat stress during the progamic phase and to improve our capacity to adapt crops to climate change.
