Analysis of vascular cambium response to drought and heat stress through integrated omics approaches to identify tolerance mechanisms and key factors in forest resilience strategies

Chiara Pezzuto ¹, Dalila Trupiano ¹, Antonello Montagnoli ², Alessio Giovannelli ³, Gabriella Stefania Scippa ¹

Department of Bioscience and Territory, University of Molise, Pesche, Italy ¹, Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Botany, Department of Biotechnology and Life Science, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy ², CNR-IRET, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy ³

Climate change is a severe global threat. Studies show that forest biomass continues to be one of the most sustainable solution to sequester a significant amount of anthropogenic carbon and mitigate the rise of global temperature. The vascular cambium is thought to play a role in biomass production, with its activity potentially being influenced by environmental changes. Despite its importance, the regulatory mechanisms controlling the vascular cambium activity are still not fully understood. Therefore, a greater knowledge - especially about the influence of stress factors on plant secondary growth - is crucial. Our research aim is to analyze the response of poplar (Populus nigra) to the combination of heat and water stress. Specifically, the investigation is performed on seed-grown poplar plants under two different temperature and watering conditions in two separate climate rooms. Due to the several differences between root and stem, the vascular cambium is collected from both organs. Integrated omics approaches will be conducted to acquire an overview of the vascular cambium response to environmental stresses. In detail, the transcriptomic, hormonomic and metabolomic data will be integrated to pinpoint the molecular factors and biomolecules specifically involved in (i) the stem and root response to the stress combinations, and (ii) during growth phases . The information, all together, will be used to construct models to successfully predict the impact of climate change and to improve forest resilience. Furthermore, this knowledge could be applied to select genotypes better adapted to global warming and climate change that our planet is increasingly observing with greater speed.

Main author career stage: PhD student

Contribution type: Poster

First choice session: 4. Structure, physiology, and development

Second choice session: 5. Genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics