Team Leader : Richard THOMPSON & Karine GALLARDO

Remplissage de la graine, remobilisation NS, et stress abiotique de fin de cycle (FILEAS)

Our research on the regulation of the development and composition of the M. truncatula seed has been widened to consider, in the frame of ANR REGULEG (2015-2018), the adaptation to environmental stresses with the aim to identify genes regulating the plasticity of seed protein composition. We also exploit the pea genomics resources to identify genes implicated in seed quality determination, in particular those responsible for the “grassy” taste which limits the incorporation of pea flour in bakery products (FUI LEG’UP, 2015-2018). We have extended our research on pea to the study of the remobilization process under stressful environments, notably hydric stress and sulphur starvation, with the aim of improving the transfer of nutrients from leaves to seeds or to delay the senescence of leaves under stressful environmental conditions (FP7-EU LEGATO project, 2014-2017). Metabolic fluxes, and in parallel, transcriptomic and proteomic changes, which accompany the remobilization of nutrients and seed filling, are being studied. Finally, it is proposed to study the interaction between sulphur nutrition and the response to hydric stress to examine the role of sulphur metabolism in this response (Ph.D. of Charlotte Henriet, starting Oct. 2015). The transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomics/fluxomics data obtained will allow us to construct networks of responses and to identify the limiting steps and regulatory nodes in these responses. Key genes will be validated by mean of TILLING mutants in pea. One has already been developed by our team for the spring pea genotype Cameor and we are developing a second population for a winter genotype in frame of the PEAMUST Project (2012-2019).