TEMPERATURE STRESS TOLERANCE IN Arabidopsis thaliana: A ROLE FOR ALTERNATIVE SPLICING

HERNANDO, C. ESTEBAN; DE LEONE, MARÍA JOSÉ; ASTIGUETA, FRANCISCO; MORA-GARCÍA, SANTIAGO; YANOVSKY, MARCELO J.

Córdoba, Córdoba

Congreso; LII Reunión Anual SAIB2016; 2016

Sociedad Argentina de Investigaciones en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular

In the last year earth global temperature has reached an historical record, exceeding in 1°C the value estimated for the 19th century. As a consequence, a profound effect on plants distribution and survival is expected, so crop improvement orientated to high temperature tolerance seems an interesting alternative in order to mitigate the deleterious effects of heat stress in plants. It is well known that plant´s physiological and metabolic plasticity is given by deep molecular changes in gene expression. Although the importance of these processes in stress responses is widely accepted, little is known about how post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms contribute to stress tolerance. With the aim of identifying components of the pre-mRNA processing machinery involved in the establishment of high temperature tolerance, we performed an in-silico screening in public data bases. As a result of this approach, we were able to find an Arabidopsis thaliana splicing factor whose expression is altered under both high and low temperatures. By performing a physiological and molecular characterization of Arabidopsis plants bearing a mutation in this splicing factor, we uncovered the importance of alternative splicing in stress tolerance. Our results highlight the role of both alternative splicing and its regulation in establishing high temperature tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana.