Project description:Drought is a harmful abiotic stress that threatens the growth, development, and yield of rice plants. To cope with drought stress, plants have evolved diverse and sophisticated stress-tolerance pathways by regulating gene expression. Previous genome-wide studies have revealed many rice drought stress-responsive genes that are involved in various metabolism, hormone biosynthesis and signaling pathways, and transcriptional regulation. However, little is known about the regulation of drought-responsive genes during rehydration after dehydration. In this study, we examined the dynamic gene expression patterns in rice seedling shoots during dehydration and rehydration using RNA-seq analysis. To investigate the transcriptome-wide rice gene expression patterns during dehydration and rehydration, RNA-seq libraries were sequenced and analyzed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). DEGs were classified into five clusters based on their gene expression patterns. The clusters included drought-responsive DEGs that were either rapidly or slowly recovered to control levels by rehydration treatment. Representative DEGs were selected and validated using qRT-PCR. In addition, we performed a detailed analysis of DEGs involved in nitrogen metabolism, phytohormone signaling, and transcriptional regulation. In this study, we revealed that drought-responsive genes were dynamically regulated during rehydration. Moreover, our data showed the potential role of nitrogen metabolism and jasmonic acid signaling during the drought stress response. The transcriptome data in this study could be a useful resource for understanding drought stress responses in rice, and may provide a valuable gene list for developing drought-resistant crop plants.
Project description:Drought stress response involves vigorous reprogramming of transcriptome while the mechanism modulating this process remains elusive. The role of 3D-genome in the regulation of rice development has recently been unveiled in rice, which exhibited characteristics distinct from that in mammals and other plants. However, the relationship between spatial chromosome organization and drought responsive gene reprogramming is still poorly understood. In this study, we identified H3K9ac as an efficient histone mark that response dynamically to drought stress in rice and re-constructed high-resolution 3D genome contact maps based on these sites under the normal, drought, and recovery conditions. We discovered significant decondensation of chromatin contacts with over 10000 chromatin loops lost upon drought stress treatment while the recovery of 3D genome was limited after 4-day’s re-watering. We identified dominate promoter-promoter interacting (PPI) loops under each condition and identified their significant correlations to altered gene expressions in response to the corresponding condition. Based on the relative contact intensities of the PPI connections, we characterized super-promoter regions that integrate closer connections of genes with more vigorous inductions to condition shifts. Especially, about 75% of the drought stress-dominate PPI loops were associated to the binding by a well-defined drought stress-responsive transcription factor, OsbZIP23. The mutation of OsbZIP23 led to the diffuse of over 80% DS-dominate PPI loops and impaired the expression of the connected genes. As a case study, we showed how OsbZIP23 binding to a super-promoter region can integrate the PPI loop formation and transcriptional activation of four function-vital dehydrin genes upon drought stress. Our results shed light on the mechanisms of 3D genome dynamic in response to water supply variations in rice and highlight the role of OsbZIP23 in the regulation of chromatin loop formation under drought stress.
Project description:Rice (Oryza sativa), the major staple food crop is being cultivated under varying ecosystems ranging from irrigated lowland to rainfed upland environments. Improvement in the rice production under drought prone unfavourable environment depends on the development of drought tolerant genotypes which needs thorough understanding of physiological and molecular events behind the tolerance mechanism. There is considerable genetic variation for drought tolerance mechanism within the cultivated gene pool. To understand the diversity of drought response, two indica rice genotypes namely, i) Apo, an up-land drought tolerant indica veriety from Philippines and ii) IR64, a popular high yielding drought susceptible genotype were selected for this study. We used the 22K rice Oligoarray from Agilent technologies to study the transcript profile in the leaves of the two contrasting rice genotypes under control and drought stressed conditions during vegetative phase. Keywords: Drought response We used Agilent rice gene chips (G4138A) to investigate the transcript level changes in rice leaf tissues during drought stress. We used two contrasting rice genotypes (IR64 drought susceptible and Apo drought tolerant) differing in their degree of drought tolerance. Plants were grown under green house conditions and drought stress was imposed on 33rd DAS. Leaf sampling was done in both control and drought stressed plants after 6 days of drought stress. Three replications of microarray experiments were carried out by hybridizing the control samples against the drought stressed samples.
Project description:The OsCPK4 gene is a member of the complex gene family of the Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CPKs) in rice. Expression of OsCPK4 is induced by high salinity, drought and the phytohormone abscisic acid. The OsCPK4 protein localizes to the plasma membrane. Transgenic rice overexpressing OsCPK4 enhances tolerance to salt and drought stress, the transgenic plants having stronger water-holding capability than control plants. Microarray analysis of OsCPK4 rice plants revealed up-regulation of genes involved in metabolism, particularly lipid metabolism, as well as genes involved in oxidative stress and redox control. Meanwhile, OsCPK4 overexpression has no impact on the expression of the well-characterized abiotic stress-associated transcription factors (i.e. DREB and NAC), or the typical salt and drought-inducible genes (i.e. LEA genes, including Dehydrin genes). Under salt stress conditions, the OsCPK4 transgenic lines showed lesser membrane lipid peroxidation as compared to control plants, indicating that OsCPK4 rice plants have a better capacity to prevent oxidative damage in cellular membrane lipids. Collectively, our data suggest that OsCPK4-mediated processes protect the plant cell from uncontrolled redox reactions affecting membrane functions, which, in turn, results in salt and drought tolerance. OsCPK4 shows great promise for genetic improvement of tolerance to abiotic stress in rice.
Project description:We have characterized the changes in miRNA expression profiles in rice leaves under drought stress and As stress and compared these to unstressed leaves. 10 pairs of drought responsive and 8 pairs of As responsive miRNA-gene were identified and validated by qRT-PCR. This study identifies putative specific miRNA-mRNA regulatory modules with roles during drought and As stress. Putative microRNAs identified in this study are involved in hormone signaling, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, and antioxidant defence. The results of this study will assist in elucidating the role of miRNAs in post-transcriptional regulation of target genes during abiotic stress and may contribute to the development of strategies to engineer drought and heavy metal resistance.
Project description:The members of bHLH transcription factor superfamily are known to play key role in plant development and abiotic stress response. Loss-of-function of OsbHLH148 gene resulted in increased sensitivity of rice plants to drought stress. To identify the targets of OsbHLH148 and dissect the drought stress response pathway regulated by it, we performed transcriptome profiling of Osbhlh148 mutant plants under drought stress as well as well-watered conditions by RNA-sequencing.
Project description:Drought stress response involves vigorous reprogramming of transcriptome while the mechanism modulating this process remains elusive. The role of 3D-genome in the regulation of rice development has recently been unveiled in rice, which exhibited characteristics distinct from that in mammals and other plants. However, the relationship between spatial chromosome organization and drought responsive gene reprogramming is still poorly understood. In this study, we identified H3K9ac as an efficient histone mark that response dynamically to drought stress in rice and re-constructed high-resolution 3D genome contact maps based on these sites under the normal, drought, and recovery conditions. We discovered significant decondensation of chromatin contacts with over 10000 chromatin loops lost upon drought stress treatment while the recovery of 3D genome was limited after 4-day’s re-watering. We identified dominate promoter-promoter interacting (PPI) loops under each condition and identified their significant correlations to altered gene expressions in response to the corresponding condition. Based on the relative contact intensities of the PPI connections, we characterized super-promoter regions that integrate closer connections of genes with more vigorous inductions to condition shifts. Especially, about 75% of the drought stress-dominate PPI loops were associated to the binding by a well-defined drought stress-responsive transcription factor, OsbZIP23. The mutation of OsbZIP23 led to the diffuse of over 80% DS-dominate PPI loops and impaired the expression of the connected genes. As a case study, we showed how OsbZIP23 binding to a super-promoter region can integrate the PPI loop formation and transcriptional activation of four function-vital dehydrin genes upon drought stress. Our results shed light on the mechanisms of 3D genome dynamic in response to water supply variations in rice and highlight the role of OsbZIP23 in the regulation of chromatin loop formation under drought stress.
Project description:Drought stress response involves vigorous reprogramming of transcriptome while the mechanism modulating this process remains elusive. The role of 3D-genome in the regulation of rice development has recently been unveiled in rice, which exhibited characteristics distinct from that in mammals and other plants. However, the relationship between spatial chromosome organization and drought responsive gene reprogramming is still poorly understood. In this study, we identified H3K9ac as an efficient histone mark that response dynamically to drought stress in rice and re-constructed high-resolution 3D genome contact maps based on these sites under the normal, drought, and recovery conditions. We discovered significant decondensation of chromatin contacts with over 10000 chromatin loops lost upon drought stress treatment while the recovery of 3D genome was limited after 4-day’s re-watering. We identified dominate promoter-promoter interacting (PPI) loops under each condition and identified their significant correlations to altered gene expressions in response to the corresponding condition. Based on the relative contact intensities of the PPI connections, we characterized super-promoter regions that integrate closer connections of genes with more vigorous inductions to condition shifts. Especially, about 75% of the drought stress-dominate PPI loops were associated to the binding by a well-defined drought stress-responsive transcription factor, OsbZIP23. The mutation of OsbZIP23 led to the diffuse of over 80% DS-dominate PPI loops and impaired the expression of the connected genes. As a case study, we showed how OsbZIP23 binding to a super-promoter region can integrate the PPI loop formation and transcriptional activation of four function-vital dehydrin genes upon drought stress. Our results shed light on the mechanisms of 3D genome dynamic in response to water supply variations in rice and highlight the role of OsbZIP23 in the regulation of chromatin loop formation under drought stress.
Project description:In this research, an array of 27,448 rice genes was used to elucidate gene expression in air-dried rice seedlings (lead and root) at various periods of treatment times. The analyses show that rice responds to drought stress mainly by down-regulating many biological processes including gene expression and regulation, protein phosphorylation, and cellular metabolism. Among strategies to actively adapt to drought, most significant are inducing protective molecules, which may be differentially regulated based on plant organs.
Project description:Heat shock factors (Hsfs) are known to regulate heat and drought stress response by controlling the expression of heat shock proteins and oxidative stress responsive genes. Loss-of-function of OsHSFA2e gene resulted in increased sensitivity of rice plants to drought and heat stress. To identify the targets of OsHSFA2e and dissect the stress response pathway regulated by it, we performed transcriptome profiling of Oshsfa2e mutant plants under drought stress as well as well-watered conditions by RNA-sequencing.