Poster abstracts
Poster number 49 submitted by Emily Ranseen
Gene expression and alternative polyadenylation in an Arabidopsis sr45 mutant
Emily Ranseen (Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky), Jordan Powers (Biochemistry Program, Department of Biology, St. Bonaventure University), Chong Zhang (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County), Hua Lu (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County), Xiao-Ning Zhang (Biochemistry Program, Department of Biology, St. Bonaventure University), Arthur G. Hunt1 (Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky)
Abstract:
RNA processing is central to gene expression in eukaryotes. In Arabidopsis, mutants impaired in the expression of a splicing factor, SR45, have been described previously. One such mutant, sr45-1, displays flower and seed phenotypes, and has characteristic differences in gene expression in inflorescences; these differences include altered expression of genes associated with defense responses, and are reflected in a greater resistance of the sr45-1 mutant to infection with a bacterial pathogen. To better understand these characteristics, and also to explore possible connections between splicing and polyadenylation, gene expression and alternative poly(A) site choice was studied in wild-type and sr45-1 mutant Arabidopsis. Almost 1000 genes showed significant differences in expression between the sr45-1 mutant and wild-type. As was seen in inflorescence tissues, the uninfected sr45-1 mutant showed altered expression of genes associated with immunity and defense responses, compared with the wild-type. Nearly 1000 genes also showed some measurable differences in poly(A) site choice. About 100 of these were also altered in their expression, suggestive of a role for APA in determining overall gene expression levels. However, these ca. 100 genes included only a small number associated with defense responses. These results confirm the global gene expression profile of the sr45-1 mutant that was seen in inflorescence tissues and reinforce the conclusion that SR45 plays important roles in plant defense responses. They also provide a tenuous but interesting link between APA and gene expression.
References:
1: Zhang XN, Shi Y, Powers JJ, Gowda NB, Zhang C, Ibrahim HMM, Ball HB, Chen SL,
Lu H, Mount SM. Transcriptome analyses reveal SR45 to be a neutral splicing
regulator and a suppressor of innate immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana. BMC
Genomics. 2017 Oct 11;18(1):772. doi: 10.1186/s12864-017-4183-7.
Keywords: alternative splicing, SR45, alternative polyadenylation