Rapid recovery gene silencing in response to excess-light stress in Arabidopsis

Date

Tuesday 25 October 2016

Time

12:30-13:30

Venue

CSIRO Black Mountain B1 Lecture Theatre

Speaker

Peter Crisp, ARC Centre of Plant Energy Biology, ANU

Summary

This research presents a study into the potential of enhancing stress recovery as a novel method to improve plant performance. In particular, we focus on excess-light stress because fluctuations in light irradiance cause frequent and repeated cycles of light-stress and recovery. The photoprotective mechanisms that defend plants from excess-light stress are likely not optimised for maximal productivity. Therefore, small enhancements in lights-stress recovery dynamics could translate to significant gains over days, weeks and seasons.

Towards this goal, here we have profiled stress-, recovery- and memory-responses at the level of gene expression in Arabidopsis. We hypothesised that high instability of stress responsive mRNAs could facilitate rapid recovery following stress. It is an established paradigm in the field of RNA decay that instability can promote stress responsiveness. However, here we extend this paradigm to specifically investigate the implications for stress recovery by performing in depth transcriptome profiling (mRNA, sRNA and degradome) and DNA methylation profiling. We find that the transcriptome can indeed rapidly reset due to extreme instability of many mRNAs. We term this phenomenon Rapid Recovery Gene Silencing (RRGS). We further perform mechanistic investigations into the basis of RRGS and also extend our investigation beyond recovery to find that RRGS does not impair subsequent stress responses or transcriptional memory.

Brief Bio

Dr Peter Crisp is a postdoctoral fellow working on gene expression, epigenetics and retrograde signaling in the ARC Centre of Plant Energy Biology at the ANU. My major interest is in understanding how plant genomes are interpreted and expressed, particularly in the face of environmental challenges. That is to say, how chromatin, gene expression and transcriptional networks shape the interactions between plants and the stressful and dynamic environments they grow in. My interests span both wet lab and computational biology and I value being able to integrate genetic, biochemical and genomic approaches. I have a B.S. from the ANU and received my PhD in Barry Pogson’s Lab at the ANU in 2016.

 This is a public seminar.

NO visitor pass is required for non-CSIRO attendees going to Lecture Theatre Building 1.