Initiation and development of crown roots in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.): genetic investigation and comparison with rice, the plant model for cereals

Thu NGUYEN, M.Sc.

Doctoral thesis

Initiation and development of crown roots in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

Abstract:

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a major crop species which becomes a genetic model for the small grain temperate cereals of the Triticaceae family. Roots are hidden organs with a major function during plant growth and development, including anchorage, interaction with microorganism, and importantly water and nutrients uptakes. Understanding the mechanisms controlling root development represents the first step toward the production of crops with enhanced agronomical traits. In this PhD proposal, we aim to understand the initiation and development of crown roots in barley. For this purpose, methods such as transcriptomic analysis, histology, in situ PCR, mutagenesis will be used. Our study will be compared with events happening during the same process in rice, thanks to our collaboration with the laboratory of cereal root systems (CERES, France), led by Prof. P. Gantet (https://sites.google.com/site/cerealrootsystem/) and with Dr. Hoang Thi Giang from the International Joint Laboratory on "Rice Functional Genomics and Plant Biotechnology" (LMI RICE, Hanoi, Vietnam). The PhD study is conducted in the laboratory of molecular biology (http://www.molbio.upol.cz/) which is fully equipped for the purposes of the thesis and has been dealing with transgenic transformation of barley for several years. Recently the method of CRISP/Cas9 was introduced into our laboratory to successfully generate knockout transgenic plants.

Abstract:

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a major crop species which becomes a genetic model for the small grain temperate cereals of the Triticaceae family. Roots are hidden organs with a major function during plant growth and development, including anchorage, interaction with microorganism, and importantly water and nutrients uptakes. Understanding the mechanisms controlling root development represents the first step toward the production of crops with enhanced agronomical traits. In this PhD proposal, we aim to understand the initiation and development of crown roots in barley. For this purpose, methods such as transcriptomic analysis, histology, in situ PCR, mutagenesis will be used. Our study will be compared with events happening during the same process in rice, thanks to our collaboration with the laboratory of cereal root systems (CERES, France), led by Prof. P. Gantet (https://sites.google.com/site/cerealrootsystem/) and with Dr. Hoang Thi Giang from the International Joint Laboratory on "Rice Functional Genomics and Plant Biotechnology" (LMI RICE, Hanoi, Vietnam). The PhD study is conducted in the laboratory of molecular biology (http://www.molbio.upol.cz/) which is fully equipped for the purposes of the thesis and has been dealing with transgenic transformation of barley for several years. Recently the method of CRISP/Cas9 was introduced into our laboratory to successfully generate knockout transgenic plants.

Keywords

Barley, crown-root, CRISPR/Cas9, transgenic transformation, histology, transcriptomic.

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 29. 5. 2024

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Véronique Hélene Bergougnoux-fojtik, Ph.D.

Palacký University Olomouc

Faculty of Science

Doctoral programme / field:
Biochemistry / Biochemistry