Project description:Arabidopsis ecotypes of Sha and Ler showed differences in tolerance to salinity stress. A previous study indicated that a premature stop codon resulting in a truncated Response to ABA and Salt 1 (RAS1) protein in Sha contributes to the increased salt tolerance relative to Ler ecotype. Sha exhibited higher germination rates and longer roots on MS plate, presumably due to the decreased ABA sensitivity in Sha. More Sha plants also survived in soil after salt treatment with relatively lower electrolyte leakage when compared to Ler. Transcriptome analysis revealed that expression levels of many genes were changed between Sha and Ler ecotypes and by salt treatments. About 500 transcripts were commonly changed by at least one salinity effect and one ecotype effect, and 171 of them were co-regulated by all four comparisons. Transcripts involved in redox, secondary metabolism, auxin metabolism, photosynthesis, cell wall, and protein synthesis were mainly down-regulated by salinity effects, while transposable element genes, microRNA and antisense sequences, histone superfamily genes, and biotic stress related genes were significantly changed by Sha ecotype effects and only slightly by salinity. Several metabolic pathways such as stress, TCA, hormone/lipid/secondary metabolism, redox, development, and GO terms involved in stress, oxidation, and defense response were enriched by both salinity and ecotype effects. Ninety-five highly inducible genes were identified as candidates of RAS1 target genes and the functions involved hormone metabolism, biotic stress, RNA, DNA synthesis, protein metabolism, cell, and microRNA metabolism. All these results indicated that the Sha ecotype was possibly preconditioned to abiotic stress relative to Ler through regulation of signaling pathways and stress responsive gene expression. These comparative transcriptomic and analytical results also confirm the complexity of ABA responses and salt stress tolerance mechanisms, and they suggest additional targets for improving tolerance.
Project description:Living organisms have to cope with multiple and combined fluctuations in their environment. According to their sessile mode of life, plants are even more subjected to such fluctuations impacting their physiology and development. In particular, nutrient availability is known to tune plant development through modulating hormonal signaling, and conversely, hormonal signals are key to control nutrient related signaling pathways (Krouk et al., 2011a). However, very few is known about molecular mechanisms leading to plant adaptation to such combined signals. Here we deployed an unprecedented combinatorial treatment matrix to reveal plant adaptation in response to nitrate (NO3-), ammonium (NH4+), auxin (IAA), cytokinins (CK) and abscisic acid (ABA) and their exhaustive binary combinations.
Project description:Fluctuating light affects photosynthesis in chloroplasts, resulting changes of a series of redox reactions and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Chloroplast redox regulation have been considered as “a fine regulation of protein function which is crucial for efficient photosynthesis”. However, the role of redox regulation in acclimation to fluctuating light for plants is still unclear. In this study, we performed global quantitative mapping of the Arabidopsis thaliana (wild-type and pgr5 mutant) cysteine thiol switching using the latest iodoTMT-based redox proteomics technology, systematically revealing a high-quality landscape of fluctuating light-responsive redox-modified proteins for the first time. Notably, photosynthesis-related pathway, especially PSI-related proteins, are operational thiol-switching hotspots.
Project description:Plants aquire nitrogen from the soil, most commonly in the form of either nitrate or ammonium. Unlike ammonium, nitrate must be reduced (with NADH and ferredoxin as electron donors) prior to assimilation. Thus, nitrate nutrition imposes a substantially greater energetic cost than ammonium nutrition. Our goal was to compare the transcriptomes of nitrate-supplied and ammonium-supplied plants, with a particular interest in characterizing the differences in redox metabolism elicited by different forms of inorganic nitrogen. We used microarrays to compare the short-term transcriptional response to either nitrogen supply or ammonium supply in Arabidopsis roots. Genes upregulated or downregulated by nitrate only, ammonium only, or both ammonium and nitrate were identified and analyzed.
Project description:Nitrogen and light are two major regulators of plant metabolism and development. While genes involved in the control of each of these signals have begun to be identified, regulators that integrate gene responses to nitrogen and light signals have yet to be determined. Here, we evaluate the role of bZIP1, a transcription factor involved in light and nitrogen sensing, by exposing wild-type (WT) and bZIP1 T-DNA null mutant plants to a combinatorial space of N and L treatment conditions. We use ANOVA analysis combined with clustering and Boolean modeling, to evaluate the role of bZIP1 in mediating L and N signaling genome-wide.
Project description:Most higher organisms, including plants and animals, have developed a time-keeping mechanism that allows them to anticipate daily fluctuations of environmental parameters such as light and temperature. This circadian clock efficiently coordinates plant growth and metabolism with respect to time-of-day by producing self-sustained rhythms of gene expression with an approximately 24-hour period. The importance of these rhythms has in fact been demonstrated in both phytoplankton and higher plants: organisms that have an internal clock period matched to the external environment possess a competitive advantage over those that do not. We used microarrays to identify circadian-regulated genes of Arabidopsis thaliana to elucidate how the clock provides an adaptive advantage by understanding how the clock regulates outputs and determining which pathways and processes may be under circadian control. Keywords: time course