Promoter architecture and transcriptional regulation of genes upregulated in germination and coleoptile elongation of diverse rice genotypes tolerant to submergence

Title : Promoter architecture and transcriptional regulation of genes upregulated in germination and coleoptile elongation of diverse rice genotypes tolerant to submergence

Abstract:

Rice is unique in its ability to germinate and elongate its coleoptile in response to submergence stress compared to other crops that fail to germinate under such conditions. However, the rate of germination and coleoptile elongation varies from genotype to genotype. Therefore, to elucidate the unique transcriptional mechanism that regulates differences in coleoptile elongation, an ab initio approach was used to reveal the promoter architecture and possible transcriptional regulation of rice genotypes from diverse backgrounds which have different rates of coleoptile elongation to reach the surface of water for shoot and root initiation in response to submergence tolerance. The putative cis-elements and their associated transcription factors provide useful information on the crosstalk between transcription factors and phytohormones. The results suggest that the endogenous ABA level could be acting as an on-off switch regulating in a spatio-temporal manner to activate/repress other TFs and hormonal signaling pathways during germination and coleoptile elongation. Co-ordination of both auxin-BR responses could be regulating coleoptile elongation. TFs such as MYB3Rs, TSO1, TCX2/SOL2, TCX3/SOL1 and ASHR1 could potentially be involved in epigenetic regulation of coleoptile elongation. The information derived from the current in silico analysis can potentially guide in developing new emerging rice genotypes for direct seeding.
Key words: Rice Germination, Submergence, Promoter Cis-Elements, Transcription Factors, Gene Regulation

Biography:

Bijayalaxmi Mohanty received her MSc and MPhil degree from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India in 1983 and 1985 respectively and PhD degree from the University of Cambridge, UK in 1991. She is currently a Visiting Research Scientist at the Environmental Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Her main research interests focus on the abiotic stress tolerance in rice and other plants, plant genomics, metabolic and transcriptional regulation, integrative omics approaches to different abiotic stress conditions and plant modeling. She is the Associate Editor for Current Plant Biology, Plant Biophysics and Modeling, Frontiers in Plant Science, and review Editor for 30 internationally referred journals.