Ana Margarida Fortes

Company
Center for Biodiversity, Functional and Integrative Genomics

Address
Institute of Applied Science and Technology - BioFIG
Science Faculty, University of Lisbon
1749-016 Lisboa

Telephone
+351-21-7500163

E-mail
margafortes@yahoo.com

1. Contribution for specific Working Group (s) and collaborative links

Partner 23 will perform transcriptomic analyses of genes involved in synthesis of growth regulators such as polyamines, auxins and jasmonates, as well as genes involved in synthesis of secondary metabolites or related to sugar and lipid metabolism during wound-induced plant morphogenesis, during pathogen response and during ripening of non-climateric fruits. Interaction with partners 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,17,20,21, 23 and 24 in the context of WG 4.

2. Specific contribution of each partner

It has become evident that pathways controlling different abiotic stress responses share numerous common regulatory elements and targets. Partner 23 aims at studying the wound response and growth regulators (IAA, BAP) as inducing factors for morphogenic processes to occur in hop. Recent data from cDNA microarray studies showed that genes related to stress response are differentially expressed upon wounding and throughout morphogenesis in medium containing both auxins and cytokinins, namely those coding for glutathione S-transferase senescence-associated protein, aux/ IAA protein, and peroxidases (Fortes et al., 2008).

These transcriptomics data was supported by the analysis of the metabolome through 1NMR, namely in what concerns sugar and lipid content and phenylpropanoids. Moreover, glutathione and polyamines were shown to increase tremendously during morphogenesis (Fortes et al. 2009) as well as jasmonates (Fortes et al. 2005), lipid peroxides (Fortes et al. 2004) and IAA (unpublished). Since programmed cell death (PCD) is occurring in specific cells during morphogenesis induced by abiotic stress, partner 23 aims at relating the production of specific compounds to differentially expressed genes involved in PCD.

On the other hand, identification of improved pathogen resistance traits is undergoing for grapevine, elucidating genetic variability of natural resistance factors, namely genes involved in polyamines, jasmonates and phytoalexins biosynthesis.

Partner 23 will be gathering information on plant response to stress in general through the study of morphogenesis and pathogen response, which can provide hints to how plants react to any source of stress. 

Thus, Partner 23 with a wide experience on microarray analysis will be able to develop chips and carry out expression studies for genomic approaches in the context of WG4. 

3. Qualification for the role

Ana Margarida Fortes is an Auxiliar Researcher at the Department of Plant Biology of Science Faculty of Lisbon and Center for Biodiversity, Functional and Integrative Genomics. She has been working in plant morphogenesis for 10 years, studying the signaling factors involved in induction of morphogenesis in hop, namely the role of stress caused by wounding and the role of growth regulators such as polyamines, auxins, ethylene and jasmonates, by analysis of transcriptome and metabolome profiling, sub-cellular studies and immunolocalization. She is more recently in charge of projects focusing on functional genomics aiming at understanding plant- pathogen interactions and fruit ripening in grapevine.

4. Capacity available for the project

Partner 23 will provide experience required for microarray studies, plant tissue and cell culture and molecular biology techniques, including quantitative real-time RT-PCR, cDNA library construction, gene cloning and characterization of recombinant proteins, Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy and plant transformation. The laboratory has all the experience and facilities to carry out the work allocated, specifically for development of cDNA chips and sequencing.

5. Estimate of economic dimension

For 3 years
Consumables, travel, other costs- 59100
Personal costs- 53820
Total 112 920 €