Study of the allelic diversity of the genomic regions involved in biogenesis of the lignified cell walls in grasses and in its regulation – Indentification and study of candidate genes

Dynamic establishment of cell wall constituents, in particular lignin, can explain biomass quality differences and is thus important to consider for agricultural or industrial valorisations (silage, biomaterial, biofuel). In grass, genes involved in lignin biosynthetic pathway are most known whereas regulating factors of this process are still unknown. QTL studies for biomass degradability have lead to QTLs with strong effects but colocalising rarely with genes involved in lignin biosynthesis.
This project will be dedicated to the identification of genomic regions involved in maize cell wall assembly. Factors implied in the regulation of these assemblies will also be regarded.
To succeed, 3 main approaches are planned:
1) kinetic transcriptomic approach of the different microdissected tissues from several maize lines contrasted for cytological characteristics.
2) QTL detection within dedicated RIL populations
3) allelic diversity study of QTL region

PhD subject IJPB 2011 from research group Primary cell wall