legume resistance signaling in biotic and abiotic stresses

Legumes such as Medicago truncatula and pea (Pisum sativum) have been selected as plant species to study the response to drought, salt, wounding, and fungal attack, and induction of double stresses. The transcriptional activation of several classes of genes, such as RNAs (microRNAs, siRNAs, tasiRNAs, antisense RNAs), and mRNAs coding for key signaling enzymes (hormone signaling: Jasmonic acid, Abscisic acid, Salicylic acid biosynthesis genes and signal regulating genes) will be studied. Libraries of clones have been constructed to perform Next Generation Sequencing. On one side, a Systems Biology approach is required to the understanding of stress signalling networks. In a comparative study, cloning of orthologous of resistance genes in other legume species will be required to monitor their activation and/or fine tuning.