Identification and characterization of key circadian clock genes in tobacco hairy roots

SOSA ALDERETE, LG; MAS P; GUIDO M; AGOSTINI E

Mar del Plata

Congreso; LI Reunión SAIB 2015; 2015

SAIB

Circadian clocks emerged not only to respond to external signals, but also anticipate predictable changes in the environment that may occur during the transition from day to night. This suggests that a key function of the circadian clock is to confer adaptive advantages. The main goal of this work, were identify and characterize different clock genes (CG) in Nicotiana tabacum hairy roots cultures (HRC). To identify tobacco CG, a screening of the publicly accessible tobacco and Arabidopsis expressed sequence tag (EST) databases were performed using the tBLASTn protocol. The candidate CG, including LHY, TOC1, FKF1, PRR7 and PRR9 were selected in base to the high identify and the lowest E value. The results showed that not only tobacco seedlings but also the HRC growth in vitro condition keep the expression of circadian CG analyzed. In addition, these expression profiles were similar to the oscillatory patterns reported for A. thaliana CG. Besides, the synchronization by photoperiod with cycles of light and darkness was very important to maintain the oscillation in the expression not only for seedlings but also for the HRC. Therefore, this is the first finding that show that the HRC, devoid of aerial part, were able to synchronize the circadian expression of CG, and confirm the utility of this in vitro cultures as a model system to study different biological processes that involve the CG participation.