Title: Ecophysiological mechanisms driving the trade-off between carbon uptake and stress tolerance: taking advantage of polyploidy (POLYSTRESS)

Funding agency: Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities

Reference: PID2019-107434GA-100

Duration: January 2020 - December 2022

Amount awarded: 145.200€

Principal investigator: Jorge Gago Mariño (University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain)

Other participant investigators: Ismael Aranda García (National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology, Madrid, Spain)

General objective: Polyploidy (whole-genome duplication) is a ubiquitous natural process driving genotypic and phenotypic variation that can lead to improved plant fitness even in harsher environments than those of the parental diploid species. Our aim is to decipher the molecular and ecophysiological mechanisms that should drive the successful shifts promoted by the polyploidy in the CO2 uptake and stress tolerance trade-off relationship. We will study three polyploid complexes adapted to cold- (Saxifraga oppositifolia) or warm-arid environments (Cheilanthes tinaei and Olea europaea).