Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Grafting is a millenary technique that consists in cutting and joining different plant to create one chimeric plant. This technique has favored the domestication of fruit trees and from the last century it has been implemented in herbaceous species like Solanaceae family to generate chimeric plants that are resistant to diseases like soilborne diseases or abiotic stress like drought stress. Interestingly, Solanaceae family have the unique ability to graft interspecifically within the plant members of the whole family unlike other plant groups which grafting capacity is restricted to the same species and genus. However, the grafting compatibility of this family is still not understood to this day as close related species like tomato and pepper are not capable to successfully graft while more distantly related species like tomato and petunia were reported to graft successfully. In order to better understand the mechanisms of grafting compatibility within the Solanaceae family, I tested grafting tomato with other species of Solanaceae in vitro. I also tested the possible role in grafting compatibility processes, of genes involved in vascular development, using VIGS technology in Solanum lycopersicum.