Project description:Increasing photosynthetic efficiency remains a major goal across the globe given its central role in CO2 assimilation. Here, we identified a nuclear genome-residing orphan gene, comprised of 3 exons, two with apparent endophytic origins and the third being a highly conserved fragment of the RIBULOSE BISPHOSPHATE CARBOXYLASE/ OXYGENASE LARGE SUBUNIT (RuBisCo). This novel gene, here-on referred to as Populus RuBisCo-like (PRL-1) gene localizes in chloroplast, endoplasmic reticulum and nuclear compartments of plant cells, acts as a transcriptional repressor and modulates adaptation to fluctuating light. P. trichocarpa genotypes with high PRL-1 expression levels quickly dissipated non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) upon transitioning from high to low light and rapidly induced NPQ upon returning to high light. The dynamic modulation of NPQ yields high quantum efficiency of linear electron transport (PSII) and 10-20% increased quantum efficiency of CO2 assimilation (CO2). The enhanced photosynthesis efficiency corresponded with increased plant height and biomass in P. trichocarpa with up to 35 % and 100% increases under field and greenhouse conditions. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants heterologously expressing the PRL-1 gene gained up to 200% in biomass and 97% in seed yield under greenhouse conditions. Taken together, PRL-1 presents a novel and trackable target for increasing photosynthetic efficiency in plants.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of fully developed leaves of Arabidopsis Col0 plants treated with 50 µM DCMU in high light stress.The aim of the experiment was to determine the specific effect of uncoupling electron transport from Photosystem II (by treatment of leaves with DCMU) under high light conditions compared with the effect of high light treatment alone.
Project description:Examine global gene expression patterns in control and 35S:PAP1 Arabidopsis plants upon environmental perturbation (light and temperature) over the course of the experiments. Experiment Overall Design: Red coloured 35S:PAP1, and empty vector control, plants of Arabidopsis thaliana Columbia were grown under room temperature, high light (RTHL, 22°C, 440 µmol m-2 s-1 irradiance) conditions to promote red leaf colouration. The growth conditions were then changed to a high day temperature, low light (HTLL: 30°C day, 150 µmol m-2 s-1 irradiance) stress treatment for six days, during which time the 35S:PAP1 leaves lost much of their red colouration, turning green. The growth conditions were then returned to a low temperature high light (LTHL, 15°C, 62% RH, 440 µmol m-2 s-1 irradiance) regime to restore the red colouration.
Project description:To investigate acclimation mechanisms employed under extreme high light conditions, gene expression analysis was performed using the model microalgae Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 (PCC 6803) cultured under various light intensities. From the low to the mid light conditions, the expression of genes related to light harvesting systems was repressed, whereas that of CO2 fixation and of D1 protein turnover-related genes was induced. Gene expression data also revealed that the down-regulation of genes related to flagellum synthesis (pilA2), pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase (pntA and pntB), and sigma factor (sigA and sigF) represents acclimation mechanisms of PCC 6803 under excessive high light conditions.
Project description:Purpose: Overexpression of VDE, ZEP and PsbS (VPZ) in plants confers enhanced dynamics of non-photochemical quenching of NPQ under FL light. VPZ overexpression in tobacco has been reported to increase plant biomass under fluctuating light. However, our work demonstrates that such strategy had no advantageous effect when asssayed in Arabidopsis thaliana. To investigate whether this observation is due to impairements in signaling pathways due to the expression of VPZ in Arabidopsis thaliana, transcriptome profiles of VPZ plants exposed to fluctuating light or high light were conducted. Methods: mRNA-Seq libraries were prepared from 21-d-old Col0 plants and VPZ lines #2 and #4 cultivated under standard control conditions and then exposed to fluctuating light or high light for 6h and 30 h. Standard Illumina protocols were used for mRNA-Seq sequencing. Triplicates for 3 independent plants were used. Adaptor sequences were removed with Trimmomatic and resulting reads mapped to the Arabidopsis genome (Araport11) with Tophat 2.1.1. Normalised counts reads were quantified with featureCounts to provide processed data files and differential expression analysis were conducted with the DEseq2 pipeline. Results: mRNA-Seq libraries contained app. 9 milion reads each. Transcript analysis for differential gene expression was conducted according to the Tophat/featureCounts/DESeq2 pipeline. To declare significant differences, a cut-off for absolute log2(FC) ≥ 1 compared to the initial timepoint (0h) and FDR ≤ 0.05 was applied. Significant transcripts exclusively found for Col0 and both VPZ lines in each time-point were considered for subsequent analysis. Accordingly, 528 and 415 transcripts (6h and 30h) were found for Col0, and 326 and 896 (6h and 30h) for the VPZ under control conditions. For FL, 490 and 591 transcripts qualified as specific (6h and 30h) for Col0 and 938 and 401 (6h and 30h) for VPZ. Strikingly, the amount of transcripts raised to 2847 and 2902 DEGs (6h and 30h) for Col0, whereas only 546 and 304 (6h and 30h) were detected for VPZ under HL. transcripts). Conclusions: the overexpression of VPZ in Arabidopsis leads to particular transcriptome response under fluctuating light related to changes in photosynthesis and response to abscisic acid, among all. However, Col0 displayed wider transcriptome responses than VPZ after exposure to high light .