SCAN:Novel players in plant responses to adverse environmental conditions

SCAN Seminar:

Title: Novel players in plant responses to adverse environmental conditions

Speaker: Nelson Saibo

Affiliation: Assistant researcher

Laboratory: Genomics of Plant Stress

Abstract:

Plants have evolved high plasticity for adaptation to environmental challenges. Nevertheless, abiotic stress, such as high salinity, cold, and drought are the main cause of crop loss worldwide and crop productivity depends on how efficiently plants respond to these stresses. Given that rice is highly affected by abiotic stress and stress responses involve a strict transcriptional control, we have identified and characterized the function of novel transcription factors (TFs) regulating different stress-responsive genes, such as OsDREB1B or OsRMC. More than thirty novel regulatory proteins interacting with the promoters of abiotic stress responsive genes have been identified so far. Among these TFs, we have found seven Zinc Fingers and a putative Phytochrome Interacting Factor (PIF) that binds to the OsDREB1B gene promoter. Interestingly, all these TFs are inactivators of OsDREB1B gene expression.  The OsPIF was shown to interact with the active form of OsphyB and may be the missing link between abiotic stress and light signaling in rice. We have also shown that OsDREB1B transcriptional level is highly correlated with different histone modifications. In addition, our studies unveiled that OsHOS1, a RING E3-ubiquitin ligase, regulates OsRMC gene expression through modulation of the TFs binding to the OsRMC promoter. We have also shown that OsHOS1, besides regulating different stress responses, is also involved in root mechanosensing. Further functional characterization of the novel TFs identified involved cellular localization (re-localization under stress), gene expression under stress, protein-protein interaction, and transgenic/mutant analysis.  Our work provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying abiotic stress responses in rice by identifying and characterizing the function of new players in the signaling pathways.

This talk will also reveal the great enthusiasm in Portugal about the Fascination of Plants Day (http://www.plantday12.eu/portugal.htm), a worldwide event launched by the European Plant Science Organization and coordinated in Portugal by the Sociedade Portuguesa de Fisiologia Vegetal.
 http://www.facebook.com/aquihaplanta