Project description:By comparing transcriptional profiling between a wild-type rice and an Al-sensitive rice mutant star1, we found that rice possesses novel mechanisms of Al-tolerance in addition to ART1-regulated mechanism in rice.
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.
Project description:Rice grains are rich in starch but are deficient in proteins containing essential amino acids such as lysine and threonine. Therefore, efforts have been made to improve the nutritional value of rice by overexpressing the genes involved in lysine biosynthesis and/or suppression of lysine catabolism that led to the increased protein content in rice grains. Despite the economic and nutritional benefits rice, the protein accumulation mechanisms are largely elusive. Therefore, to explore the comprehensive proteome profiles, three different parts of rice grains including embryo, endosperm, bran were harvested from weedy rice cultivars (cv. Dharial) and its EMS mutant (DM) having 9.3 and 14.8% of protein content in rice grains, respectively. Here, we utilized a label-free quantitative proteomic analysis and this approach led to the identification of total 5,821 proteins. Of these, 322, 723, and 550 proteins revealed significant differences in their abundance in rice embryo, endosperm, and bran, respectively. Functional classification of identified proteins revealed that enrichment of proteins associated with nitrogen compound biosynthesis and transport, intracellular transport, localization, protein/amino acid synthesis, and photosynthesis, among others were observed in endosperm and bran of high protein mutant rice cultivar. Taken together, the current study uncovers the proteome changes and highlight the various functions of metabolic pathways associated with protein accumulation in rice.
Project description:In this project we are investigating the mechanism of drought tolerance in rice at early vegetative stage by looking into expression profile of DEGs and uniquely expressed genes
Project description:By comparing transcriptional profiling between a wild-type rice and an Al-sensitive rice mutant star1, we found that rice possesses novel mechanisms of Al-tolerance in addition to ART1-regulated mechanism in rice. The transcriptional profiling between the wild-type rice and an Al-sensitive mutant, star1. +Al vs. -Al in the roots of wild-type rice and star1 mutant. Biological replicates: +Al/-Al WT root tip 4 replicates, +Al/-Al WT basal tip 4 replicates, +Al/-Al star1 root tip 4 replicates, +Al/-Al star1 basal tip 4 replicates