PROJETS

Physiological and functional phenotyping of aquaporins in the regulatory mechanism of drought tolerance of tomato

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is both an important food crop and a model plant species. However, drought causes serious losses in the productivity of tomato plants. Aquaporins are known as the main channels for the transport of water and involved in drought recovery. Unfortunately, and despite their great importance, the individual and integrated functions of aquaporins involved in tomato drought response remain unclear. Our aim is to unravel and to understand the functions of aquaporins in the regulatory mechanism of drought tolerance of tomato. CRISPR-Cas9 system is used to knockout the 47 aquaporins genes of tomato one by one...

Oryza glaberrima response strategies to salinity : distinction between osmotic and ionic components

Salinity is an important environmental constraint which strongly reduces crop yield in several areas in the world. Rice (Oryza sativa) is considered as a salt-sensitive species and improvement of salt resistance is a major goal for plant breeders. Some species in the Oryza genus may constitute an interesting source of gene for rice improvement. Comparatively to the classical Asian rice species (Oryza sativa), the African rice Oryza glaberrima is poorly described for its response to salt stress. Our aims were 1-) to identify salt-tolerant varieties of O. glaberrima, 2-) to discriminate between the osmotic and the ionic components of salt stress and 3) to precise the impact of individual ions on salt deleterious impact. Plants were exposed to stress in nutrient solution or in soil culture...