Other project participants

Much of the work on freezing tolerance in the last several years has focused on the CBF pathway. Despite many studies on these genes, it still remains to be determined how their expression is regulated and what the precise contribution of each individual gene to freezing tolerance and cold acclimation is. The general objective of this proposal is twofold: 1) to better understand the regulation of CBF gene expression and the involvement of the CBF cold response pathway in freezing tolerance and 2) to examine other pathways involved in freezing tolerance. We will use Arabidopsis and a commercially important tree species, Eucalyptus. For the first objective, we propose to use three complementary approaches: i) the study of natural variation, ii) the use of reporter-genes as well as RNAi and over-expressing (OE) lines, and iii) the study of mutants affected in CBF regulation. In Arabidopsis, we will identify more efficient natural variants of CBF genes (coding sequences and promoters), as well as new regulators of CBF expression. In Eucalyptus, the project aims to characterize CBF gene expression, to identify the CBF regulon(s), and to obtain molecular markers for EguCBF genes. In a second part, we will use recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of Arabidopsis that are available at the SGAP for phenotyping with respect to freezing tolerance in order to begin to examine non-CBF pathways. The results we expect to obtain from this project will constitute an important step for better applying our knowledge of the CBF genes, and perhaps others, to improve the freezing tolerance of many crop plants.

McKhann, H.I., Gery, C., Bérard, A., Lévêque, S., Zuther , E., Hincha, D., De Mita, S., Brunel, D., Téoulé, E., (2008) Natural variation in CBF gene sequence, gene expression and freezing tolerance in the Versailles core collection of Arabidopsis thaliana. Submitted.

Navarro M., Marque G., Ayax C., Keller G., Borges J.P., Marque C. Teulières, C. Complementary regulation of four Eucalyptus CBF genes under various cold conditions. J Exp Bot. 2009;60(9):2713-24

Abstracts
Navarro M, Ayax C, Marque C and Teulières C (2009) Overexpression of Eucalyptus CBF genes in an homologous system suggests a different efficiency in the control of cold Tolerance. International Conference “Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance” 8-11 February 2009 Vienna, Austria.

Ellen Zuther, Elisa Schulz, Takayuki Tohge, Ronan Sulpice, Alisdair Fernie, Karin Koehl, Dirk K. Hincha: Characterization of freezing tolerance and field performance during overwintering of natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana, GABI-Statusseminar, March 2009, Potsdam, Germany

Marque G., Navarro M., Lévêque S., Borges J.P., Teulières C and Marque C. Structural analysis of Eucalyptus gunnii family of CBF transcription factor genes involved in cold tolerance. IUFRO Tree Biotechnology 2009. Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. 28 June–2 July, 2009

Marque G., Azar S., Adlanmerini M., McKhann H.I., Potts B., Marque C. and Teulières C. Natural variation in freezing tolerance, CBF gene sequence and expression in two contrasted Tasmanian E. gunnii families. IUFRO Tree Biotechnology 2009.Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. 28 June–2 July, 2009

Gery, C. , Lévêque, S., Legoupi, J., Zuther, E., Hincha, D., Brunel, D., Téoulé, E., McKhann, H., Freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana : The CBF genes and beyond. Adaptation Potential in Plants, Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Vienna, Austria, March 19-21, 2009

Zuther E., Gery C., Lévêque S., Koehl K., McKhann H., Hincha D.K.Natural Variation in Freezing Tolerance, CBF Gene Sequence and Expression in the Versailles Core Collection of Arabidopsis thaliana. International Conference Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance, Vienna, Austria. 8-11 February, 2009

Zuther E, Gery C, Lévêque S, McKhann H, Hincha DK:Natural variation in freezing tolerance, CBF gene sequence and expression in the Versailles core collection of Arabidopsis thaliana In: 19th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR). Montreal Canada.

Julio Salinas. Transcriptional conttrol of cold acclimation in Arabidopsis. XVII Meeting of the Spanish Society of Plant Physiology. Alcala de Henares, Spain, 18-17 Nov. 2007.