GENETIC AND EPIGENETIC REGULATION OF OVULE DEVELOPMENT AND PLANT REPRODUCTION IN A. THALIANA

In angiosperms, efficient and successful reproductive strategies have been crucial to achieve evolutionary advantages such as genetic adaptability. However, humans, during crop domestication, selected specific traits for agricultural benefits. Understanding the molecular mechanisms associated to agricultural noteworthy traits, i.e. seed yield, is fundamental for genetic improvement of crops. On top of that, in the present thesis I will discuss four different projects, all related to plant reproduction process, with a particular focus on phytohormones signaling pathway and epigenetic mechanisms in the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana. Cytokinin has been widely described as a key regulator of plant development and plant reproduction. Hereby, in the first supplied work, we give a hint on the role of CYTOKININ RESPONSE FACTORs in auxin-cytokinin crosstalk during pistil development. Moreover, there will be an insight on unexplored molecular mechanisms of regulation of the AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR 5/MONOPTEROS (ARF5/MP), such as multiple transcriptional start site and alternative splicing. Finally, taking advantage of innovative techniques, such as Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting coupled to RNA sequencing, we have investigated the role of the chromatin remodeler HISTONE DEACETYLASE 19 during ovule primordia formation process and pollen tube ovular guidance.