Project description:Phosphate starvation/sufficient rice seedling, root or shoot Pi-starvation or Pi-sufficient stresses responsible rice genes, including previously unannotated genes were identified by Illumina mRNA-seq technology. 53 million reads from Pi-starvation or Pi-sufficient root or shoot tissues were uniquely mapped to the rice genome, and these included 40574 RAP3 transcripts in root and 39748 RAP3 transcripts in shoot. We compared our mRNA-seq expression data with that from Rice 44K oligomicroarray, and about 95.5% (root) and 95.4% (shoot) transcripts supported by the array were confirmed expression both by the array and by mRNA-seq, Moreover, 11888 (root) and 11098 (shoot) RAP genes which were not supported by array, were evidenced expression with mRNA-seq. Furthermore, we discovered 8590 (root) and 8193 (shoot) previously unannotated transcripts upon Pi-starvation and/or Pi-sufficient.
Project description:Alkaline soils such as those found in some Mediterranean areas typically have a low phosphorus (P) and zinc (Zn) phytoavailability that detracts from plant growth and yield. We examined the effects of P and Zn fertilization individually and in combination on growth, yield and grain protein content in maize grown in pots filled with three Mediterranean soils. P and Zn translocation was impaired, and yield reduced by 8–85%, in plants treated with Zn or P alone. In contrast, joint fertilization with P and Zn enhanced translocation to grain and nutrient use efficiency, thereby increasing plant growth, yield (31–121%) and grain Zn availability. Fertilization with P or Zn also influenced the abundance of specific proteins affecting grain quality (viz., storage, lys-rich and cell wall proteins), which were more abundant in mature grains from plants fertilized with Zn alone and, to a lesser extent, P + Zn.
Project description:A biological phenomenon in which hybrids exhibit superior phenotypes from its parental inbred lines known as heterosis, has been widely exploited in plant breeding and extensively used in crop improvement. Hybrid rice has immense potential to increase yield over other rice varieties and hence is crucial in meeting increasing demand of rice globally. Moreover, the molecular basis of heterosis is still not fully understood and hence it becomes imperative to unravel its genetic and molecular basis. In this context, RNA sequencing technology (RNA-Seq) was employed to sequence transcriptomes of two rice hybrids, Ajay and Rajalaxmi, their parental lines, CRMS31A (sterile line, based on WA-CMS) and CRMS32A (sterile line based on Kalinga-CMS) respectively along with the common restorer line of both hybrids, IR-42266-29-3R at two critical rice developmental stages viz., panicle initiation (PI) and grain filling (GF). Identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at PI and GF stages will further pave the way for understanding heterosis. In addition, such kind of study would help in better understanding of heterosis mechanism and genes up-regulated and down-regulated during the critical stages of rice development for higher yield.
Project description:Popular rice mega varieties lack sufficient key micronutrients (e.g., Fe, Zn), vitamins and a balanced amino acid composition that are essential for a healthy diet. The major bottleneck for improving the nutritional quality of popular rice varieties through conventional breeding or gene technology is our lack of an integrated understanding of the biochemical and molecular processes that occur during rice grain filling (and their determining genes or loci). In this project, we will perform molecular expression profiling on specific tissue layers of the rice grain. To perform this experiment, the material will be developing rice seeds from plants grown hydroponically under controlled greenhouse conditions. Then, the laser microdissection approach will be applied to dissect different parts of the grain (i.e, vascular trace, aleurone, nucellar epidermis, etc). Total RNA will be extracted from these dissected parts and RNA sequencing will be performed. In this project, we will learn how the synthesis and deposition of grain nutrients is regulated, particularly, during grain filling.