Project description:Lotus japonicus is a model legume broadly used to study transcriptome regulation under different stress conditions and microorganism interaction. Understanding how this model plant respond gainst alkaline stress will certainly help to develop more tolerant cultivars in economically important Lotus species as well as in other legumes. In order to uncover the most important response mechanisms activated during alkaline stress, we explored by microarray analysis the transcriptome regulation occurring in the phenotypically contrasting ecotypes MG-20 and Gifu B-129 of L. japonicus after 21 days of alkaline stress.
Project description:Lotus japonicus is a model legume broadly used to study transcriptome regulation under different stress conditions and microorganism interaction. Understanding how this model plant protects itself against pathogens will certainly help to develop more tolerant cultivars in economically important Lotus species as well as in other legumes. In order to uncover the most important defense mechanisms activated upon bacterial attack, we explored by microarray analysis the transcriptome regulation occurring in the phenotypically contrasting ecotypes MG-20 and Gifu B-129 of L. japonicus after inoculation with the non-pathogenic strain Pseudomonas syringae DC3000 pv. tomato.
Project description:Drought is one of the major environmental factors limiting biomass and seed yield production in agriculture. In this research we focused on plants from Fabaceae family, which have a unique ability for establishment of symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and are relatively susceptible to water limitation. We present the changes in nitrogenase activity and global gene expression occurring in Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus root nodules during water deficit. Our results prove a decrease in the efficiency of nitrogen fixation as well as extensive changes in plant and bacterial transcriptomes shortly after watering cessation. We show for the first time that not only symbiotic plant component, but also Sinorhizobium meliloti and Mesorhizobium loti bacteria residing in the root nodules of M. truncatula and L. japonicus, respectively, adjust their gene expression in response to water shortage. Although our results demonstrate that both M. truncatula and L. japonicus root nodules are susceptible to water deprivation, they indicate significant differences in plant and bacterial response to drought between tested species, which may be related to various type of root nodules formed by these species.
Project description:To identify the regulatory targets of the R2R3-Myb transcription factor, LjMyb14, the gene was constitutively over-expressed in Lotus japonicus under the Lotus ubiquitin promoter. The gene expression levels of three biological replicates of the Lotus japonicus (MG20) were averaged and compared to the the gene expression levels of three independent lines of Lotus japonicus japonicus constituitively over expressing LjMyb14 using the Lotus ubiquitin promoter.
Project description:Legumes interact with rhizobial bacteria to form nitrogen-fixing root nodules. Host signalling following mutual recognition ensures a specific response, but is only partially understood. Focusing on the stage of epidermal infection with Mesorhizobium loti, we analysed endogenous small RNAs (sRNAs) of the model legume Lotus japonicus to investigate their involvement in host response regulation. We used Illumina sequencing to annotate the L. japonicus sRNA-ome and isolate infection-responsive sRNAs, followed by candidate-based functional characterization. Sequences from four libraries revealed 219 novel L. japonicus micro RNAs (miRNAs) from 114 newly assigned families, and 76 infection-responsive sRNAs. Unlike infection-associated coding genes such as NODULE INCEPTION (NIN), a micro RNA 172 (miR172) isoform showed strong accumulation in dependency of both Nodulation (Nod) factor and compatible rhizobia. The genetics of miR172 induction support the existence of distinct epidermal and cortical signalling events. MIR172a promoter activity followed a previously unseen pattern preceding infection thread progression in epidermal and cortical cells. Nodule-associated miR172a expression was infection-independent, representing the second of two genetically separable activity waves. The combined data provide a valuable resource for further study, and identify miR172 as an sRNA marking successful epidermal infection. We show that miR172 acts upstream of several APETALA2-type (AP2) transcription factors, and suggest that it has a role in fine-tuning AP2 levels during bacterial symbiosis.