Biocel Lab, Botany Department, Biosciences Institute, University of São Paulo, Brazil

PIs: Profs. Eny Iochevet Segal Floh and Magdalena Rossi

Funding institutions: FAPESP, Petrobras, CNPq.

The position is immediately available after candidate selection. Sixteen month

fellowship (R$ 5.333,40). Curriculum vitae must be sent to:

Eny Iochevet Segal Floh: enyfloh@usp.br

and/or Magdalena Rossi: mmrossi@usp.br

Biochemist or Biologist with PhD in molecular biology, genomics or bioinformatics.

Skills in bioinformatics are highly desirable.

Establishment of molecular markers for early selection of embryogenic cultures with

high embryogenic potential in Brazilian pine (Araucaria angustifolia (BERT) O. KTZE).

Project background:

Brazilian pine (Araucaria angustifolia (Bert) O. Ktze) is the only native conifer species

with economic importance in Brazil. Recently, due to intensive exploitation Brazilian

pine was included in the official list of endangered Brazilian plants. Biotechnology

tools, like somatic embryogenesis (SE), may become a potentially useful tool for mass

clonal propagation and ex situ conservation of commercial and endangered plant

species, especially conifers. SE involves the coordinated execution of four steps:

embryogenic culture (EC) induction, proliferation, maturation, and plant regeneration.

As observed for other conifers, the presence of well-developed early somatic embryos

(SE) in EC of Brazilian pine can be considered the pre-requisite for embryo maturation

in a medium supplemented with abscisic acid (ABA) and osmotic agents. However, in

some genotypes even the presence of bipolar SE does not guarantee embryo

maturation. Since SE morphology cannot be used as the only factor for EC selection,

the development of molecular markers for early detection of embryogenic cultures

responsive to maturation promoters (ABA and osmotic agents) is highly desirable. By

using proteomic and transcriptomic approaches, the present project aims the gene

expression pattern characterization of somatic and zygotic embryos in order to identify

molecular markers that could assist the selection of EC that could be used for ex situ

conservation programs.