Project description:Cell growth rate is regulated in response to resource availability including the abundance, and molecular form, of essential nutrients. In the model eukaryotic cell, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast), the molecular form of environmental nitrogen impacts both cell growth rate and mRNA expression. Disentangling causal relationships between nitrogen availability, cell growth rate and differential gene expression poses a considerable challenge. Using experimental control of cell growth rate using chemostats, we studied the effect of variation in environmental nitrogen on differential gene expression. We find that the primary determinant of nitrogen-regulated gene expression is nitrogen abundance whereas variation in nitrogen source affects the expression of only a small number of transcripts with highly specialized functions. To study the dynamics of nitrogen-responsive gene expression we perturbed steady-state nitrogen-limited chemostat cultures by addition of either proline or glutamine. Addition of either proline or glutamine to cells growing in nitrogen-limited chemostats results in repression of the nitrogen catabolite repression (NCR) regulon consistent with nitrogen abundance, and not nitrogen source, being the primary determinant of nitrogen-regulated gene expression. We find that a transition from nitrogen-limited to nitrogen-replete conditions is accompanied by rapid induction of transcripts required for protein translation. We identified a reciprocal relationship between specific regulons required for protein translation (RP and RiBi) and the NCR regulon. Using mathematical modeling we find evidence that cells adopt a metabolically inefficient growth mode during this transition. By means of high resolution time series analysis we find evidence that rapid, and potentially accelerated, mRNA degradation plays an important role in remodeling gene expression programs in response to change in environmental nitrogen. We propose that the evolutionarily conserved TORC1 signaling pathway orchestrates the balance between protein translation and assimilation of nitrogen sources at the transcriptional level to optimize rates of cell proliferation. A total of of 102 samples were analyzed in different nitrogen-limited conditions using chemostats in both steady-state and dynamic conditions. A common reference obtained from an ammonium-limited chemostat growing at a dilution rate of 0.12/hr was used for all two color hybridization experiments.

Project description:Background: Thellungiella salsuginea is an important model plant due to its natural tolerance to abiotic stresses including salt, cold, and water deficits. Microarray and metabolite profiling have shown that Thellungiella undergoes stress-responsive changes in transcript and organic solute abundance when grown under controlled environmental conditions. However, few reports assess the capacity of plants to display stress-responsive traits in natural habitats where concurrent stresses are the norm. Results: To determine whether stress-responsive changes observed in cabinet-grown plants are recapitulated in the field, we analyzed leaf transcript and metabolic profiles of Thellungiella growing in its native Yukon habitat during two years of contrasting meteorological conditions. We found 673 genes showing differential expression between field and unstressed, chamber-grown plants. There were comparatively few overlaps between genes expressed under field and cabinet treatment-specific conditions. Only 20 of 99 drought-responsive genes were expressed both in the field during a year of low precipitation and in plants subjected to drought treatments in cabinets. There was also a general pattern of lower abundance among metabolites found in field plants relative to control or stress-treated plants in growth cabinets. Nutrient availability may explain some of the observed differences. For example, proline accumulated to high levels in cold and salt-stressed cabinet-grown plants but proline content was, by comparison, negligible in plants at a saline Yukon field site. We show that proline accumulated in a stress-responsive manner in Thellungiella plants salinized in growth cabinets and in salt-stressed seedlings when nitrogen was provided at 1.0 mM. In seedlings grown on 0.1 mM nitrogen medium, the proline content was low while carbohydrates increased. The relatively higher content of sugar-like compounds in field plants and seedlings on low nitrogen media suggests that Thellungiella shows metabolic plasticity in response to environmental stress and that resource availability can influence the expression of stress tolerance traits under field conditions. Conclusion: Comparisons between Thellungiella plants responding to stress in cabinets and in their natural habitats showed differences but also overlap between transcript and metabolite profiles. The traits in common offer potential targets for improving crops that must respond appropriately to multiple, concurrent stresses.

Project description:Background: Thellungiella salsuginea is an important model plant due to its natural tolerance to abiotic stresses including salt, cold, and water deficits. Microarray and metabolite profiling have shown that Thellungiella undergoes stress-responsive changes in transcript and organic solute abundance when grown under controlled environmental conditions. However, few reports assess the capacity of plants to display stress-responsive traits in natural habitats where concurrent stresses are the norm. Results: To determine whether stress-responsive changes observed in cabinet-grown plants are recapitulated in the field, we analyzed leaf transcript and metabolic profiles of Thellungiella growing in its native Yukon habitat during two years of contrasting meteorological conditions. We found 673 genes showing differential expression between field and unstressed, chamber-grown plants. There were comparatively few overlaps between genes expressed under field and cabinet treatment-specific conditions. Only 20 of 99 drought-responsive genes were expressed both in the field during a year of low precipitation and in plants subjected to drought treatments in cabinets. There was also a general pattern of lower abundance among metabolites found in field plants relative to control or stress-treated plants in growth cabinets. Nutrient availability may explain some of the observed differences. For example, proline accumulated to high levels in cold and salt-stressed cabinet-grown plants but proline content was, by comparison, negligible in plants at a saline Yukon field site. We show that proline accumulated in a stress-responsive manner in Thellungiella plants salinized in growth cabinets and in salt-stressed seedlings when nitrogen was provided at 1.0 mM. In seedlings grown on 0.1 mM nitrogen medium, the proline content was low while carbohydrates increased. The relatively higher content of sugar-like compounds in field plants and seedlings on low nitrogen media suggests that Thellungiella shows metabolic plasticity in response to environmental stress and that resource availability can influence the expression of stress tolerance traits under field conditions. Conclusion: Comparisons between Thellungiella plants responding to stress in cabinets and in their natural habitats showed differences but also overlap between transcript and metabolite profiles. The traits in common offer potential targets for improving crops that must respond appropriately to multiple, concurrent stresses. A custom cDNA mcroarray was used for transcript profiling. Cauline leaves from individual plants collected at a Yukon, Canada field site were used in this study. Three samples were obtained in 2003 (Field 2003 A, B and C) and three harvested in 2005 (Field 2005 A, B and D). Cauline leaves from 12 week old chamber grown plants served as controls. For each microarray experiment a technical replicate (dye swap) was performed resulting in a total of 12 hybridizations.

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Dynamics of Nitrogen-regulated Gene Expression Reveals a Reciprocal Relationship between Cell Growth Rate and Nitrogen Catabolism

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