Molecular basis of non-synonymus polymorphisms of PHYB in light hyposensitivity.

RUIZ DIAZ MJ, SÁNCHEZ LAMAS M, CERDÁN P, BOTTO JF.

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta de Sociedades de Biociencias, SAIB; 2017

The plant model, Arabidopsis thaliana, has a natural distribution in Eurasia and North Africa. Our research group collected seeds of introduced populations of this species (PAT) in the Patagonia, Argentina. Physiological studies in controlled laboratory conditions showed that PAT is hyposensitive to red light and in response to low red/far-red ratios occurring when plants grow in dense vegetation canopies. We hypothesize that polymorphisms in phytochrome B gene (PHYB) is responsible for the PAT phenotype. To gain insight on the molecular causes of light hyposensitive in PAT, we studied the contribution of genetic variation on the promoter and four non-synonymous polymorphisms in the coding region of PHYB. We are generating transgenic plants of different versions of PHYB-PAT expressed in phyB mutant background, and over-expressing the PHYB-PAT promoter in PAT and Col-0 backgrounds. The material generated will be characterized under different light conditions to evaluate the contribution of each PHYB polymorphism on plant phenotype. Advances in this line of work will be presented.