Root growth control: a systems biology approach
Project Objectives
The project intends to develop a system platform for the understanding of root development, as an essential step in understanding and controlling plant root systems. This not only represents an extraordinary scientific challenge but it is also of utmost importance for genetic improvement and agronomic practices in sustainable agriculture. The platform has been created by combining and integrating molecular genetics and biochemistry approaches with high-throughput genomic technologies and with the building of computational models, to dissect the regulatory networks controlling Arabidopsis root growth by a systems biology approach.
Being based on proponents’ seed results, the project is focused on how interactions between hormones influence division and differentiation in Arabidopsis root meristem stem cells. Moreover, it investigates how those hormone interaction networks interact with recently discovered regulatory circuits and components, as well as on how those networks and regulatory hubs interact and overlap with communication mechanisms between the root and the aerial part of plants.
Further focus points of this project are:
- A multidisciplinary approach and involvement of laboratories and scientific institutions with different experience, structure and facilities
- The direct involvement of leading foreign partners in experimental activities
- The promotion of young group leaders
- The creation of new bioinformatics knowledge in Italy that is able to build computational models for the development of complex organismsa
Start/End Date
February 2013 - February 2016
Principal Investigator
Luisa Di Paola
Host Institution
Sapiena Università degli Studi di Roma
Other Institutions involved
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
- Università degli Studi di Udine
- Università degli Studi di Milano
Source of funding
Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca