Iris Fischer
From EESwiki
Dipl. biol. Iris Fischer
Section of Evolutionary Biology
LMU BioCenter
Grosshaderner Str. 2
82152 Planegg-Martinsried
Germany
Telefon: +49 (0)89 / 2180-74145
E-Mail: iris.fischer@biologie.uni-muenchen.de
My PhD thesis
The role of the Asr gene family in adaptation to drought in wild tomatoes
Drought stress is one of the major abiotic constraints that terrestrial plants are facing and understanding of drought adaptation mechanisms in plants is becoming a burning issue in terms of food safety. I investigate the Asr (ABA/water stress/ripening induced) gene family, which is up-regulated in water-stressed plants. In tomato, the Asr gene family consists of five homologous genes. ASR1 has two functions: in the cytoplasm, the unstructured ASR1 monomers act as chaperons; in the nucleus, ASR1 homodimers are transcription factors. For my thesis, I work with two wild tomato species: Solanum peruvianum, which is distributed from central Peru to northern Chile; and S. chilense, distributed from southern Peru to northern Chile. Considering the variance of the latitudes the species inhabit it is not surprising that they grow in very different environments, some of them even in extremely dry places. In this content, it is very likely that local adaptation has occurred. The aim of this study is to determine the role of Asr gene family in drought adaptation in tomatoes. For that, we will use population genetic tools to detect adaptation at the molecular level. Furthermore, we want to investigate the expression pattern of the candidate genes.
