Cork Candidate Genes: Functional Characterization in Potato Periderm.

Description of impact

The objective of this research line is the functional characterization of phellem candidate genes using as a model the periderm or skin of the potato tuber, a model of choice by the ease of obtaining transgenic plants in a relatively short period and to isolate sufficient amounts of tissue for analysis. Using stable transformation techniques, structural or regulatory genes are sillenced or ectopically over-expressed and the effects of transformation is studied in the periderm. We analyze possible changes in terms of structure and ultrastructure, chemical composition and physiological properties. To analyze the gene induction pattern during development, and under different inductive factors we fuse the promoter of candidate genes to reporter genes (GUS, GFP). Our studies in potato have opened a very effective way to study the biosynthesis of suberin.