Poster abstracts
Poster number 162 submitted by Marissa Gentle
Running out of rice?: Effects of Environmental Stresses on Gene Expression in Rice
Marissa L. Gentle (Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University), Laura Richey (Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University), Myasia Cherry (Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University), El-Isha Battle (Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University), Zhao Su (Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University), Sarah M. Assmann (Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University)
Abstract:
Running out of rice?: Effects of Environmental Stresses on Gene Expression in Rice
Marissa L. Gentle, Laura Richey, Myasia Cherry, El-Isha Battle,
Zhao Su, Sarah M. Assmann, Phillip C. Bevilacqua
SEECoS Mentor/ Undergraduate Research Summer 2014
Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Abstract
We are all affected by the production and yield of rice. Rice feeds over half the world’s population consumption by humans or livestock. With our rising population, the rice yield that farmers are producing will not be enough to sustain humanity in thirty years time. We are studying rice because of changing environmental conditions that are moving us into a worldwide rice shortage. Our research focuses on understanding genes that have various regulation patterns under stress conditions (e.g. heat, cold, salt, drought). This will help us further comprehend which environmental stresses rice plants are most responsive to. Gene expression is best studied by determining RNA levels. To do this, we obtained RNA from rice seedlings, performed reverse-transcription to create cDNA, and ran PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and qPCR (quantitative polymerase chain reaction) to amplify the DNA. qPCR is primarily a technique to amplify the RNA present in a stressed sample and quantify how much RNA is present. Data were recorded for two different genes that encode cold shock proteins. For gene one, there was no obvious regulation under the stressed conditions tested. For gene two, there was an up-regulation under high salt and high temperature conditions. In the future we hope to look at different stresses applied to rice strains and different genes encoding cold shock proteins.
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