In silico functional analysis and construction of CRISPR/Cas9 knockout-allowing plasmid for rice (Oryza sativa L.) heat stress-responsive gene Telomere Repeat-Binding Factor 1

• Grant number: 22/02633-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2022
• End date: May 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany - Pant Physiology
• Principal Investigator: Cristiane Paula Gomes Calixto
• Grantee: Lucca de Filipe Rebocho Monteiro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/13158-8 - Transcriptome-wide analysis of rice temperature memory and heat responses, AP.JP

Abstract

Climate change is one of the main drivers of concerns over future global food security. Alongside increased average surface temperatures, more frequent and intense heat waves are expected, with crop yield-hindering effects that can disproportionately impact underdeveloped and developing economies. Rice, accounting for 8% of worldwide production of primary crops in 2019, is particularly susceptible to heat stress (HS) - as heat-stressed cultivars experience both quantitative (yield) and qualitative output losses. Therefore a better understanding of the molecular components of rice HS response is fundamental to developing cultivars that could better cope with such novel environmental challenges. As stress responses are multi-omic network-dependent processes, a systems biology-oriented perspective has to be employed, characterizing and integrating stress-responsive genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic network elements, for instance. Notably, recent studies have underlined several HS-responsive rice genes, found to be differentially expressed and/or spliced. Besides bolstering proteome diversity, alternative splicing (AS) is also implicated in prompt transcriptome reshaping in the face of changing environmental conditions. This work thus aims to characterize a rice telomere-associated factor gene (OsTRBF1) found to be differentially expressed and differentially alternatively spliced in Vitoriano & Calixto (2021). For this, we will carry out a bioinformatics analysis of phylogenetic data, tissue- and condition-specific expression patterns and regulation-indicative promoter motifs for OsTRBF1. In parallel, we will generate a OsTRBF1 knockout-allowing plasmid for future rice transformation experiments. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BOULANGER, HADRIEN GEORGES; GUO, WENBIN; REBOCHO MONTEIRO, LUCCA DE FILIPE; CALIXTO, CRISTIANE PAULA GOMES. Co-expression network of heat-response transcripts: A glimpse into how splicing factors impact rice basal thermotolerance. FRONTIERS IN MOLECULAR BIOSCIENCES, v. 10, p. 10-pg., 2023-02-02. (19/13158-8, 22/02633-0)