Plant Homeo Domain (PHD) proteins have been shown to play important roles in controlling gene expression in a number of organisms. In particular they have been shown to encode proteins that can bind to modified histones and control chromatin structure and ultimately transcription. Arabidopsis contains four related PHD containing genes that appear to play important roles in plant reproduction. Mutations in the M<i>ale meiocyte death1 (mmd1)</i> gene result in male meiocytes that undergo apoptosis during prophase I. Mutations in MS1 (Male sterility 1) disrupt pollen development by causing tapetal cells to die. Mutations in MMD-L1 and MMD-L2 result in reduced fertility with plants showing alterations in pollen and female gametophyte development. As part of a study to understand the roles of the MMD-like proteins, in Arabidopsis, we have characterized the MMD-L1 and MMD-L2 loci. We found that the MMD-L1 locus contains a natural antisense RNA that overlaps with the 3’ end of MMD1-L1 gene, raising the possibility that the antisense RNA may help control MMD1 like expression. In this study we have investigated this possibility by obtaining and characterizing an Arabidopsis line that contains a T-DNA insertion in the MMD1L1 anti-sense gene. Preliminary results show that the AS gene plays an important and unexpected role in plant growth and development and that the AS gene plays a role in MMDL expression. Studies are underway to determine if in fact the antisense RNA is controlling MMD1L gene expression and if so how. We will also investigate the possibility that the AS RNA plays a more global role in controlling gene expression by identifying genes that show altered expression levels when AS RNA levels are either reduced or elevated.

Natural antisense RNA plays a role in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> growth and development

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.

Natural antisense RNA plays a role in Arabidopsis thaliana growth and development