Virtual plants: modelling as a tool for the genomics of tolerance to water deficit

• Published in: Trends in plant science Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 9 - 14
• Main Author: Tardieu, François
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 2003; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adaptation to environment and cultivation conditions; Adaptation, Physiological - drug effects; Adaptation, Physiological - genetics; Adaptation, Physiological - physiology; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Algorithms; Biological and medical sciences; Disasters; Ecology; Economic plant physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - drug effects; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - radiation effects; Genetics and breeding of economic plants; Genomics - methods; Genotype; Light; Models, Biological; Plant physiology and development; Plants, Genetically Modified - genetics; Plants, Genetically Modified - physiology; Quantitative Trait Loci - genetics; Quantitative Trait Loci - physiology; Varietal selection. Specialized plant breeding, plant breeding aims; Water - pharmacology; Water - physiology; Water and solutes. Absorption, translocation and permeability; Water relations, transpiration, stomata; Quantitative trait loci; Vegetals; Genetic variability; Water deficit; Tolerance; Environmental factor; Transgenic plant; Genetic determinism; Modeling
• ISSN: 1360-1385; 1878-4372
• DOI: 10.1016/S1360-1385(02)00008-0

Modelling can simulate the responses of virtual plants carrying diverse combinations of alleles under different scenarios of abiotic stress. The main difficulty is mathematically expressing the genetic variability of responses to environmental conditions. Modelling via gene regulatory networks is not feasible for such complex systems, but plants can be modelled using response curves to environmental conditions that are ‘meta mechanisms’ at plant level. Each genotype is represented by a set of response parameters that are valid under a wide range of conditions. Transgenesis of one function experimentally affected one response parameter only. Transgenic plants or plants carrying any combination of quantitative trait loci might therefore be simulated and tested under different climatic scenarios, before genetic manipulations are performed.