Adventitous root formation on olive cuttings: a physiological response under oxidative stress?

Around the Mediterranean basin, there are several hard-to-root olive cultivars, some of them with high economical importance, as it is the case for the Portuguese cv. ´Galega vulgar´, used for high quality olive oil production in most Portuguese regions with geographical determination. The project coordinator developed since 1992, efforts to improve the rooting capacity of the cv. ‘Galega vulgar’, testing most of the factors known to affect adventitious rooting, but the results weren’t always encouraging. To improve rooting ability is critical for those recalcitrant olive cultivars, but, it implies fundamental research on biology and genetics of adventitious root formation. -Are there differentiated origins for the adventitious root primordial in difficult and in easy to root olive cultivars?-Are oxidative enzymes and AOX jointly involved on metabolism control of the adventitious rooting process? Light microscopy will be used on histological studies to confirm origin of the adventitious roots.Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GCMS) either by Electron Impact (EI+) or ion chemical ionization will be used for evaluation of the endogenous levels of auxin and auxin conjugates.Spectrophotometric techniques and high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) will be used for evaluation of the enzymatic activity during the rooting process.Molecular biology techniques, including quantitative and semiquantitative RT-PCR for measurement of AOX expression.