Ronan Sulpice

National University of Ireland, Galway | NUI Galway · School of Natural Sciences

Genomic prediction (GP) has revolutionized crop breeding despite remaining issues of transfer-ability of models to unseen environmental conditions and environments. Usage of endophenotypes rather than genomic markers leads to the possibility of building phenomic prediction (PP) models that can account, in part, for this challenge. Here, we compare...

Genomic prediction (GP) has revolutionized crop breeding despite remaining issues of transferability of models to unseen environmental conditions and environments. Usage of endophenotypes rather than genomic markers leads to the possibility of building phenomic prediction (PP) models that can account, in part, for this challenge. Here, we compare a...

The genus Ulva comprises a large number of species widespread in the world, several of which are of commercial value, mainly for their nutritional benefits. However, identifying Ulva species is notoriously difficult, which largely explains why very few studies have attempted to characterize physiological and nutritional differences within the genus...

Wild relatives of tomato are a valuable source of natural variation in tomato breeding, as many can be hybridized to the cultivated species (Solanum lycopersicum). Several, including S. lycopersicoides, have been crossed to S. lycopersicum for the development of ordered introgression lines (ILs), facilitating breeding for desirable traits. Despite...

Fructans are carbohydrates present in more than 15% of flowering plants. They represent the major pool of carbohydrates in some species, especially when facing cold or drought. However, the functions of fructans with high or low degrees of polymerization (DP), their diurnal use, and the regulation of their synthesis and degradation in response to s...

Fruit pungency is caused by the accumulation of capsaicinoids, secondary metabolites whose relation to primary metabolism remains unclear. We have selected ten geographically diverse accessions of Capsicum chinense Jacq with different pungency levels. A detailed metabolic profile was conducted in the fruit placenta and pericarp at 20, 45, and 60 da...

Key message The tomato mutant Never ripe (Nr),a loss-of-function for the ethylene receptor SlETR3, shows enhanced growth, associated with increased carbon assimilation and a rewiring of the central metabolism. Abstract Compelling evidence has demonstrated the importance of ethylene during tomato fruit development, yet its role on leaf central meta...

By structuring farmers’ informal networks of seed exchange, kinship systems play a key role in the dynamics of crop genetic diversity in smallholder farming systems. However, because many crop diseases are propagated through infected germplasm, local seed systems can also facilitate the dissemination of seedborne pathogens. Here, we investigate how...

Accurate species identification often relies on public repositories to compare the barcode sequences of the investigated individual(s) with taxonomically assigned sequences. However, the accuracy of identifications in public repositories is often questionable, and the names originally given are rarely updated. For instance, species of the Sea Lettu...

Context In recent years, the Noble false widow spider Steatoda nobilis (Thorell, 1875) has expanded its range globally and may represent a potential threat to native ecosystems and public health. Increasing numbers in synanthropic habitats have led to more human encounters and envenomations. Steatoda nobilis bites were previously classed as medical...

Sea Lettuce (Ulva spp. Ulvophyceae, Ulvaceae) has tremendous ecological and industrial impacts, from the negative effects of green tide events to the industrial production of food, feed, and value-added products. Due to the morphological similarities between Ulva species, their identification requires the use of “barcoding”, which relies on the seq...

The 45S rRNA genes (rDNA) are amongst the largest repetitive elements in eukaryotic genomes. rDNA consists of tandem arrays of rRNA genes, many of which are transcriptionally silenced. Silent rDNA repeats may act as 'back-up' copies for ribosome biogenesis and have nuclear organization roles. Through Cas9-mediated genome editing in the Arabidopsis...

The 45S rRNA genes (rDNA) are amongst the largest repetitive elements in eukaryotic genomes. rDNA consists of tandem arrays of rRNA genes, many of which are transcriptionally silenced. Silent rDNA repeats may act as ‘back-up’ copies for ribosome biogenesis and have nuclear organization roles. Through Cas9-mediated genome editing in the Arabidopsis...

Main conclusion Nitrogen promotes changes in SLA through metabolism and anatomical traits in Capsicum plants. Abstract Specific leaf area (SLA) is a key trait influencing light interception and light use efficiency that often impacts plant growth and production. SLA is a key trait explaining growth variations of plant species under different envir...

Sea Lettuce (Ulva spp.; Ulvophyceae, Ulvales, Ulvaceae) is an important ecological and economical entity, with a worldwide distribution and is a well-known source of near-shore blooms blighting many coastlines. Species of Ulva are frequently misiden-tified in public repositories, including herbaria and gene banks, making species identification base...

Background Photoperiod length induces in temperate plants major changes in growth rates, morphology, and metabolism, with for example modifications in the partitioning of photosynthates to avoid starvation at the end of long nights. However, this has never been studied for a tropical perennial species adapted to grow in a natural photoperiod close...

Foliose Ulva spp. have become increasingly important worldwide for their environmental and financial impacts. A large number of such Ulva species have rapid reproduction and proliferation habits, which explains why they are responsible for Ulva blooms, known as “green tides”, having dramatic negative effects on coastal ecosystems, but also making t...

Green macroalgae of the genus Ulva, commonly known as sea lettuces, are currently traded worldwide for multiple applications, including human consumption. In this work, we evaluated the seasonal variation of the total content of lipids, esterified fatty acids (FAs) and polar lipids (the major carriers of FAs) at the level of the classes and molecul...

The noble false widow spider Steatoda nobilis originates from the Macaronesian archipelago and has expanded its range globally. Outside of its natural range, it may have a negative impact on native wildlife, and in temperate regions it lives in synanthropic environments where it frequently encounters humans, subsequently leading to envenomations. S...

Wild relatives of tomato are a valuable source of natural variation in tomato breeding, as many can be hybridized to the cultivated species (Solanum lycopersicum). Several, including Solanum lycopersicoides, have been crossed to S. lycopersicum for the development of ordered introgression lines (ILs). Despite the utility of these wild relatives and...

Under natural environment plants experience different light intensities which can affect photosynthesis and consequently the availability of carbohydrates for daytime growth and their transient storage to supply night growth. We grew a spring barley cultivar, Propino, under three different light intensities under warm days and nights, and evaluated...

Barley is described to mostly use sucrose for night carbon requirements. To understand how the transient carbon is accumulated and utilized in response to cold, barley plants were grown in a combination of cold days and/or nights. Both daytime and night cold reduced growth. Sucrose was the main carbohydrate supplying growth at night, representing 5...

Green tides, the phenomenon whereby large volume of marine environment is taken over by the sea lettuce Ulva spp, are a seasonal occurrence thought to be caused mainly by anthropogenic eutrophication. The aggravation of green tide occurrence since the 1970s could however be due to the amplification of fast-growing strains within these areas. In thi...

This article comments on: Melandri G, AbdElgawad H, Riewe D, Hageman JA, Asard H, Beemster GTS, Kadam N, Jagadish K, Altmann T, Ruyter-Spira1 C, Bouwmeester H. 2019. Biomarkers for grain yield stability in rice under drought stress. Journal of Experimental Botany 71, 669–683.

Fruit set is an important yield-related parameter which varies drastically due to genetic and environmental factors. Here, two commercial cultivars of Capsicum chinense (Biquinho and Habanero) were evaluated in response to light intensity (unshaded and shaded) and N supply (deficiency and sufficiency) to understand the role of source strength on fr...

Introduction: Snakes, insects, arachnids and myriapods have been linked to necrosis following envenomation. However, the pathways involved in arthropod venom-induced necrosis remain a highly controversial topic among toxinologists, clinicians and the public. On the one hand, clinicians report on alleged envenomations based on symptoms and the victi...

Capsaicinoids are metabolites responsible for the appealing pungency of Capsicum (chili pepper) species. The completion of the Capsicum annuum genome has sparked new interest into the development of biotechnological applications involving the manipulation of pungency levels. Pungent dishes are already part of the traditional cuisine in many countri...

Plants accumulate reserves in the daytime to support growth at night. Circadian regulation of diel reserve turnover was investigated by profiling starch, sugars, glucose 6‐phosphate, organic acids and amino acids during a light‐dark cycle and after transfer to continuous light in Arabidopsis wild‐types and in mutants lacking dawn (lhy cca1), mornin...

Wood biosynthesis defines the chemical and structural properties of wood. The metabolic pathways that produce the precursors of wood cell wall polymers have a central role in defining wood properties. To make rational design of wood properties feasible, we need not only to understand the cell wall biosynthetic machinery, but also how sucrose transp...

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies allow for the generation of robust information on the genetic diversity of organisms at the individual, species and higher taxon levels. Indeed, the number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) detected using next-generation sequencing is order of magnitudes higher than SNPs and/or alleles detected...

Cyanobacteria are one of the earliest branching groups of organisms on the planet, and during their evolutionary history were submitted to varying selective pressures. Nowadays, cyanobacteria can grow in a variety of conditions, using a large number of nitrogen sources. The control of the nitrogen metabolism in cyanobacteria depends on a fine-tunin...

Objective: The noble false widow Steatoda nobilis is the only medically significant spider known to occur in the British Isles and Ireland, with a single case of steatodism ever reported from Great Britain. We present here five new cases of envenomations by S. nobilis, three from Ireland and two from Great Britain and describe symptoms not previous...

To identify genomic regions involved in the regulation of fundamental physiological processes such as photosynthesis and respiration, a population of Solanum pennellii introgression lines (ILs) was analyzed. We determined phenotypes for physiological, metabolic and growth related traits, including gas-exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence parameter...

Central metabolism is a coordinated network that is regulated at multiple levels by resource availability and by environmental and developmental cues. Its genetic architecture has been investigated by mapping metabolite quantitative trait loci (QTL). A more direct approach is to identify enzyme activity QTL, which distinguishes between cis-QTL in s...

The noble false widow Steatoda nobilis (Thorell, 1875) has established thriving populations in urban centres throughout England and Wales since it was accidentally imported from the Canary Islands and Madeira to Britain over a century ago. In recent years, Steatoda nobilis has colonised parts of Western Europe, California, Chile and the Middle East...

Primary metabolism is closely linked to plant productivity and quality. Thus, a better understanding of the regulation of primary metabolism by photoreceptors has profound implications for agricultural practices and management. This study aims at identifying the role of light signaling in the regulation of primary metabolism, with an emphasis on st...

Many studies have investigated the various genetic and environmental factors regulating cyanobacterial growth. Here, we investigated the growth and metabolism of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, under different nitrogen sources, light intensities and CO2 concentrations. Cells grown on urea showed the highest growth rates. However, for all the conditions...

The contribution of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation to modifying carbon allocation to developing wood of trees is not well defined. To clarify the role of transcriptional regulation, the enzyme activity patterns of eight central primary metabolism enzymes across phloem, cambium, and developing wood of aspen (Populus tremula L.)...

Photoperiod duration can be predicted from previous days but irradiance fluctuates in an unpredictable manner. To investigate how allocation to starch responds to changes in these two environmental variables, Arabidopsis Col-0 was grown in a 6-h and a 12-h photoperiod at three different irradiances. The absolute rate of starch accumulation increase...

Previous studies with Arabidopsis accessions revealed biomass correlates negatively to dusk starch content and total protein, and positively to the maximum activities of enzymes in photosynthesis. We hypothesised that large accessions have lower ribosome abundance and lower rates of protein synthesis, and that this is compensated by lower rates of...

Transcript and metabolite profiling were performed on leaves from six rice cultivars under high night temperature (HNT) condition. Six genes were identified as central for HNT response encoding proteins involved in transcription regulation, signal transduction, protein-protein interactions, jasmonate response, and the biosynthesis of secondary meta...

Plants assimilate carbon in their photosynthetic tissues in the light. However, carbon is required during the night, and in non-photosynthetic organs. It is therefore essential that plants manage their carbon resources spatially and temporally and coordinate growth with carbon availability. In growing maize (Zea mays) leaf blades a defined developm...

Incidence of natural light stress renders it important to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms by which plants protect themselves from harmful effects of UV-B irradiation, as this is critical for fitness of land plant species. Here we describe natural variation of a class of phenylacylated-flavonols (saiginols), which accumulate to high leve...

Identification of syntenic genes located in the intrasyntenic genomic region of AtFPT/SCPL genomic region in the Brassicaceae species. Syntenic genes of intrasyntenic block, Arabidopsis thaliana chromosome 4 (AtChr.4)(defined as Block II) of AtFPT/SCPL genomic region, were found in 2) Arabidopsis lyrata chromosome 7 (AlChr.7), 3) Capsella rubella c...

Identification of syntenic genes located in the Brassicaceae syntenic block of AtFPT/SCPL genomic region. Syntenic block (defined as Block I) of AtFPT/SCPL genomic region, 1) Arabidopsis thaliana chromosome 2 (AtChr.2), were found in 2) Arabidopsis lyrata chromosome 4 (AlChr.4), 3) Capsella rubella chromosome 4 (CrChr.4), 4) Thellungiella parvula c...

Supplementary Figures 1 - 17, Supplementary Tables 1 - 3 and Supplementary Note 1

Secondary metabolite profiling of Arabidopsis thaliana accession flower

Saiginol profiling of near-isogenic line (NIL) Arabidopsis thaliana lines mQTL. Samples obtained from 45 M lines (C24 background) and 69 N lines (Col-0 background) were evaluated with three independent biological replications (n=3).

Improving carbon fixation in order to enhance crop yield is a major goal in plant sciences. By quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping, it has been demonstrated that a vacuolar invertase (vac-Inv) plays a key role in determining the radical length in Arabidopsis. In this model, variation in vac-Inv activity was detected in a near isogenic line (NIL)...

Plants use the circadian clock to sense and respond to photoperiod length. Seasonal responses like flowering are triggered at a critical photoperiod when a light-sensitive clock output coincides with light or darkness. However, many metabolic processes, like starch turnover, and growth respond progressively to photoperiod duration. We first tested...

The rates of increase in yield of the main commercial crops have been steadily falling in many areas worldwide. This generates concerns because there is a growing demand for plant biomass due to the increasing population. Plant yield should thus be improved in the context of climate change and decreasing natural resources. It is a major challenge w...

Background: A collection of 175 melon (Cucumis melo L.) accessions (including wild relatives, feral types, landraces, breeding lines and commercial cultivars) from 50 countries was selected to study the phenotypic variability for ripening behavior and sugar accumulation. The variability of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at 53 selected cand...

Our understanding of the complex, transcriptional feedback loops in the circa-dian clock mechanism has depended upon quantitative, timeseries data from disparate sources. We measure clock gene RNA profiles in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings, grown with or without exogenous sucrose, or in soil-grown plants and in wild-type and mutant backgrounds. The...

Heterosis is the phenomenon whereby hybrid offspring of genetically divergent parents display superior characteristics compared with their parents. Although hybridity and polyploidy can influence heterosis in hybrid plants, the differential contributions of hybridity vs polyploidy to heterosis effects remain unknown. To address this question, we in...