Lam ia Krichen I ncom ing Agreenskills fellow ( Septem ber 2 0 1 4 - August 2 0 1 5 ) Laboratory of m olecular genetics, im m unology and biotechnology, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis-El Manar ( UTM) , Tunisia Hosting team : AFEF ( Architecture et Fonctionnem ent des Espèces Fruitières) -UMR AGAP ( Am élioration Génétique et Adaptation des Plantes) - CI RAD-SupAgro Montpellier, France
University education • 1 9 9 3 -1 9 9 8 : Agronom ic engineer ( I NAT) Fruit tree production • 1 9 9 8 -2 0 0 1 : Master in agronom y and plant breeding “ Morphological characterisation of Tunisian apricots ” • 2 0 0 1 -2 0 0 7 : PhD untitled “Study of the genetic resources of apricot ( Prunus unus arm eniaca L.) in Tunisia and their relationship with the Mediterranean variability”. a jointly supervised work between the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics I mmunology and Biotechnology of the Faculty of Sciences of Tunis and SI BAGHE doctoral school of SupAgro Montpellier agriculture school in collaboration with I NRA Avignon. 2 0 0 7 -2 0 1 4 : University habilitation “ Prunus aca L.: unus ar arm eniac Conservation strategy and dissem ination history”
Professional experience • 2 0 0 7 -2 0 1 1 : Assistant professor in Tunisian University Faculty of Sicences of Gafsa – University of Gafsa • Since 2 0 1 1 : Assistant professor in Tunisian University High I nstitut of Biological Sciences of Tunis ( I SSBAT) - University of Tunis-el Manar courses, practical w ork and directed w ork on reproductive biology in plants, and on im provem ent and conservation of plant resources • Master supervision: 2 students • PhD co-supervision: 2 students
Topics of m y research • Apricot ( Prunus arm eniaca L.) m orphological variability Apricot genetic diversity in Tunisia • • Relationship of Tunisian apricot diversity w ith the Mediterranean variability • Selection of a Core collection for germ plasm conservation • History of the dissem ination of the species around the Mediterranean Basin
Postdoctoral research Project “Genetic and molecular control of Apple tree tolerance to soil water stress” Objective: Analyze the differencially expressed genes under water stress and well watered conditions in order to identify candidate genes for tree responses and adaptation to soil water restriction. Motivation for this postdoctoral study is that the water stress aspect in fruit species is a very relevant topic for Tunisia. This topic is a continuity of acquired genetic diversity and its use in plant breeding
Postdoctoral research study Part 1: Analyze dataset obtained from the AryANE micro-array apple chip to identify ontologies and metabolic pathways differentially expressed between stressed and well watered trees of two apple cultivars (Starkrimson and Granny Smith) Part 2: Selection of candidate genes implied in tree adaptive responses
Experim entation ■ Apex, leaf and root sam ples w ere collected from one-year-old plants growing in soil water restriction (two levels of water restriction: 50% and 5% of the fraction of transpirable soil water (FTSW)) compared with well watered plants ■ RNA extraction from Apex, leaf and root ■ AryANE m icro-array apple chip analyzed in UMR I RHS- I NRA ANGERS
Data screening and filtering Data filtering and Venn Diagram of ▪ Differentially expressed differentially genes (up and down expressed genes regulated) between water stressed and well watered samples of apex, leaf and root from two apple cultivars ▪ Genes are annotated to main biological functions e.g. Gene with associated Gene ontologies ontologies terms (AgriGO)
Pathw ays screening and genes selection ▪ Genes are assigned to m olecular pathw ays based on the Arabidopsis thaliana and the Rosaceae Databases ( Mapm an • 3 genes im plied in abscisic acid. Synthesis-degradation ( Yue et al. 2 0 1 2 ) softw are) • 3 genes im plied in abscisic acid. synthesis- degradation.synthesis.9 -cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase ( Hao et al. 2 0 0 9 ) • 3 genes im plied in abscisic acid.signal transduction ( Fujita et al. 2 0 0 5 ) • 5 genes im plied in abscisic acid.induced-regulated- responsive-activated ( Tabata et al. 2 0 0 0 )
Expected w ork Analyse the specific expression of the identified candidate genes resulting from the confrontation between QTL zones and transcriptomic data Explore the different forms for each of them in the apple genome; to define specific primers Perform quantitative RT-PCR for confirming the differential expression of a limited number of these genes in an independent experiment
Expected skills im provem ent Enlarge my scientific research skills : Acquire new knowledge in several fields of research such as RNA extraction, PCR and RT-PCR, bioinformatics to define primers and analyses micro-array data set Enlarge my contacts through participation to international conferences and meetings Enrich my scientific production with two papers of high scientific level Develop new research and networks in collaboration with Tunisia
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