Transcriptional Orchestration of Plant Secondary MetaboliSm - TOMSlab

Reference of the Group:

GIUV2019-467

 
Description of research activity:
Plants manufacture specialised metabolites that aid in interaction and survival with their environment. These compounds, termed "secondary metabolites", are a rich source of health benefits in human nutrition, and also represent the building blocks in the development of new pharmaceuticals. However, secondary metabolism is limited in occurrence, and some compounds are restricted temporally and spatially to certain taxonomic groups. Development and secondary metabolism are closely connected processes. Part of this association depends on differential gene expression: while information is instructed and wired into the genome, its regulation and display in certain cell types will ultimately determine the ability to accumulate different metabolites. The control of secondary metabolism in response to environmental and developmental signals is exerted by transcription factors and transcriptional co-regulators that act on cis-regulatory DNA sequences that determine when, where and how genes are expressed, but also on other types of regulatory proteins and RNAs. At TOMSlab we are interested in the transcriptional regulation of secondary metabolism. This has included genomic analyses of...Plants manufacture specialised metabolites that aid in interaction and survival with their environment. These compounds, termed "secondary metabolites", are a rich source of health benefits in human nutrition, and also represent the building blocks in the development of new pharmaceuticals. However, secondary metabolism is limited in occurrence, and some compounds are restricted temporally and spatially to certain taxonomic groups. Development and secondary metabolism are closely connected processes. Part of this association depends on differential gene expression: while information is instructed and wired into the genome, its regulation and display in certain cell types will ultimately determine the ability to accumulate different metabolites. The control of secondary metabolism in response to environmental and developmental signals is exerted by transcription factors and transcriptional co-regulators that act on cis-regulatory DNA sequences that determine when, where and how genes are expressed, but also on other types of regulatory proteins and RNAs. At TOMSlab we are interested in the transcriptional regulation of secondary metabolism. This has included genomic analyses of transcription factor families and global gene expression analyses, as well as an interest in systems biology approaches that integrate transcriptomics and metabolomics datasets. The current focus of the laboratory is the worldwide study of gene regulatory networks controlling phenylpropanoid and isoprenoid metabolism in climacteric and non-climacteric fleshy fruits, such as tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and grapevine (Vitis vinifera), respectively. We are also interested in several other species that possess potential pharmaceutical properties that make them important for drug discovery and functional food improvement.
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Web:
 
Scientific-technical goals:
  • Generacion de datos omicos en especies vegetales y cultivos celulares inducidos para la produccion de metabolitos secundarios.
  • Desarrollo de algoritmos computacionales para la integracion de datos multi-omicos
  • Cultivo in vitro de especies comerciales de frutales o interes medicinal y desarrollo de plataformas de transformacion genetica.
  • Caracterizacion funcional de genes reguladores del metabolsimo especializado de plantas.
 
Research lines:
  • Genome-wide characterization of the R2R3-MYB transcription factor family in plants.We attempted to characterise the MYB family in different plant species by combining genome-wide and plant functional characterisation studies.
  • Integrative omics approaches to identify novel regulators and unknown enzymatic steps of secondary metabolic pathways.We associate transcriptomic and metabolic data in plant organs or cell cultures to isolate unknown secondary metabolic enzymes and their transcriptional regulators.
  • Genome-wide analyses of grapevine responses to environmental stresses including those influenced by climate change.We are interested in addressing different bioinformatics data coupled with experimental data to model plant stress responses, using grapevine as a model for non-climacteric fleshy fruits.
 
Group members:
Name Nature of participation Entity Description
JOSE TOMAS MATUS PICERODirectorUniversitat de València
Research team
Chen ZhangCollaboratorUniversitat de València - Estudi GeneralUVEG PhD student
 
CNAE:
  • -
 
Associated structure:
  • Institute for Biological Systems Integration (I2SYSBIO)
 
Keywords:
  • R2R3-MYB, DAP-SEQ, Metabolismo Secundario
  • Fluxomica, Espectrometria de Masas, Transcriptomica, Integracion
  • Cambio climatico, Radiación UV