Léa MAUPILÉ

Molecular characterization of fruit set induced by growth regulators in melon

Pollinators decline and global warming threaten flower fertilization success and, thus, fruit production. Parthenocarpy, a fertilization independent fruit set, could be a way to overcome this problem. Fruit set in Cucumis melo, one of the most consumed fruit crops worldwide, is impacted by the pollinators decline and sub-optimal environmental conditions. The goal of my thesis was therefore to investigate cytological and molecular processes associated with fruit set in melon. Tissue-specific transcriptome comparisons of fertilized flowers to chemically induced fruit set enabled to identify key activators and repressors of fruit set. Using two reverse genetics approaches, TILLING and VIGS, we investigated the function of a list of candidate genes and identified promising leads to optimize fruit set in Cucurbits.

PhD defense: July, 10^th 2023

PhD co-supervisors: A. Bendahmane and J. Chaïb

 18/07/2023