Project description:Background: Release of the caesium radioisotope 137Cs during weapons testing and industrial activity has contaminated thousands of hectares of agricultural land. Ingesting 137Cs has damaging and, sometimes, fatal effects. Most Cs enters the food chain through plants. The generation of _safe_ crops that exclude Cs and can be cultivated on contaminated land requires knowledge about the mechanisms for Cs uptake. Caesium is chemically similar to potassium (K) and might enter plants through K+ transporters in the plasma membrane of root cells. To determine which transporters mediate Cs entry to plants, we have compared the accumulation of Cs and K by wildtype Arabidopsis with mutants lacking specific K+ transporters. Preliminary results showed that Cs concentration in the shoots of akt1-1, cngc1 and cngc4 (obtained from the Wisconsin T-DNA knockout facility) differed significantly from the Wassilewskija wildtype (Ws-2). A cursory investigation of their transcriptome, using the Affymetrix Arabidopsis 8K GeneChip, showed that the expression of several genes encoding K+ transporters differed between mutants and wildtype plants. The aim of this GarNet project is to confirm the previous observations and to identify further genes that are differentially expressed in mutant and wildtype plants and which might impact on Cs accumulation. Methods: Arabidopsis mutants akt1-1 (N3762), cngc1 and cngc4 and their parental ecotype Wassilewskija -2 (N1601) will be sown on MS agar and transferred to hydroponics 21 days after germination. Seedlings will be grown for a further 7 days on full nutrient solution under continuous light in a Saxcil growth cabinet. RNA will be extracted from roots of mutant and parent (control) plants at the same growth stage and twelve complete-genome Affymetrix GeneChips (3 biological replicates of material from wildtype and 3 mutants) are requested to determine the differences in their transcriptome under comparable environmental conditions.

Project description:Background: Release of the caesium radioisotope 137Cs during weapons testing and industrial activity has contaminated thousands of hectares of agricultural land. Ingesting 137Cs has damaging and, sometimes, fatal effects. Most Cs enters the food chain through plants. The generation of _safe_ crops that exclude Cs and can be cultivated on contaminated land requires knowledge about the mechanisms for Cs uptake. Caesium is chemically similar to potassium (K) and might enter plants through K+ transporters in the plasma membrane of root cells. To determine which transporters mediate Cs entry to plants, we have compared the accumulation of Cs and K by wildtype Arabidopsis with mutants lacking specific K+ transporters. Preliminary results showed that Cs concentration in the shoots of akt1-1, cngc1 and cngc4 (obtained from the Wisconsin T-DNA knockout facility) differed significantly from the Wassilewskija wildtype (Ws-2). A cursory investigation of their transcriptome, using the Affymetrix Arabidopsis 8K GeneChip, showed that the expression of several genes encoding K+ transporters differed between mutants and wildtype plants. The aim of this GarNet project is to confirm the previous observations and to identify further genes that are differentially expressed in mutant and wildtype plants and which might impact on Cs accumulation. Methods: Arabidopsis mutants akt1-1 (N3762), cngc1 and cngc4 and their parental ecotype Wassilewskija -2 (N1601) will be sown on MS agar and transferred to hydroponics 21 days after germination. Seedlings will be grown for a further 7 days on full nutrient solution under continuous light in a Saxcil growth cabinet. RNA will be extracted from roots of mutant and parent (control) plants at the same growth stage and twelve complete-genome Affymetrix GeneChips (3 biological replicates of material from wildtype and 3 mutants) are requested to determine the differences in their transcriptome under comparable environmental conditions. Keywords: strain_or_line_design

Project description:This proposal is aimed at providing transcriptome data to underpin a long-term joint research programme of Steve Smith and Alison Smith. We are jointly studying starch synthesis and breakdown in Arabidopsis leaves, and individually studying other enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism (eg. sucrose synthases, invertases, sugar transporters). Collectively these enzymes are encoded by up to 100 known genes, but there are many others of relevance to our studies. For several years we have employed a defined set of growth conditions for this work (resulting in numerous publications). We have extensive data for changes in the amounts of starch, malto-oligosaccharides and sugars throughout the diurnal cycle in these plants, and we intend to quantitate numerous key enzymes. We now wish to profile changes in transcripts in these plants, so that this information can be correlated with changes in the amounts of key enzymes and metabolites. Analysis of the data sets will help us to relate the synthesis of certain enzymes to particular metabolic functions, and also to help identify genes encoding novel proteins involved in carbohydrate metabolism. Current research is aimed at discovering such novel proteins using proteomics approaches (BBSRC Grant: _Discovery and Functional Analysis of the Starch Proteome_). While the growth conditions (12h photoperiod, 150 umol/m2/s, 20C) and ecotype (Col-0) are specifically tailored to our experiments, they will be of value to the wider community, and could form the basis for collaborative studies with other groups. The experiment has involved sampling leaves at eleven different time points as follows: 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 13, 14, 16, 20, and 24 h (where time 0 is the onset of dark and 12 h is the onset of light). The 24 h time point is a repeat of 0 h. This sequence provides relatively more samples immediately after the light-dark transitions, when changes in metabolism are most pronounced. Plants were grown in a controlled environment chamber under defined conditions, and selected for harvest according to a random number generator. Three fully expanded leaves were harvested from each of 20 plants for each sample. Leaves were frozen at -80 C and a portion saved for metabolite and enzyme assays while RNA was isolated from the remainder. The RNA has been purified and is ready to send to Nottingham. Experiment Overall Design: Number of plants pooled:20 Experiment Overall Design: Biological replicates: 2

Project description:The aim of the experiment is to study the pattern of genes expression involved in defense to heavy metals and their transport and distribution within plant organs. Most of the plant species inhibits heavy metals entrance to the roots and their transport and accumulation to/in above ground organs after toxic ions penetrate roots. Some species of Brassicacea differ in the pattern of defense gene expression in the roots in a way that allow for greater transport of toxic ions to the above ground part. If so, by harvesting such plants toxic elements will be extracted from the soil. Identification of these differences in the gene expression is crucial in development of the newly emerging environmental biotechnology phytoremediation in which plants as well as being green lungs play also a role of a green liver. Results of our studies with mustard plants showed among others that exposure for 12 hr to 12.5mg of Pb/1L of hydroponics solution is efficient to increase of constitutive genes expression and in de novo induction of genes expression coding for Pb tolerance and that this response is organ specific. Sequencing of the whole genome of A. thaliana opens the opportunity to study this phenomenon at molecular level more widely including the signaling (two-component system) and plasmolemma and tonoplast transporters genes. Therefore in our further steps we are going to use Arabidopsis as a model plant and the transcriptomics aproach is the only way for such studies. At first based on results with mustard physiological study we will conduct for elucidating Arabidopsis plant responses to lead in order to choose the most appropriate dose and time of treatment. In the trascriptome experiment we would like to study the profile gene expression in above ground parts and in the roots of arabidopsis plants in response to toxic ions of lead. Results of this study, besides promising applicable aspects, will also lead to a better understanding of plant acclimation and adaptation to antropogenic stresses. We expect to obtain mutant(s) tolerant to Pb and if so, they will be provided to NASC. Experiment Overall Design: 6 samples

Project description:The proposal aims to characterise the pathways of DSB repair and recombination in Arabidopsis with the main focus of this research being the NHEJ pathway of illegitimate recombination. We will build on our expertise and resources in the field of DSB repair in plants, using the Arabidopsis NHEJ mutant atku80 which is an excellent model system for the study of DSB repair in higher eukaryotes (West et al., 2002 Plant J. 31, 517-28). Comparison of the transcriptome in NHEJ mutant and wild type plants under different experimental conditions will identify novel candidate genes involved in DNA DSB repair or damage signalling pathways.We will conduct 4 separate experiments on Arabidopsis seedlings grown on 0.5 MS media: the first will be a control consisting of Wassilewskija (WS-2) plants grown under standard conditions. In the second experiment WS plants will be exposed to the chemotherapeutic agent bleomycin (1 microgram per ml). This agent has been shown to cause both single and double strand breaks in the genome of Arabidopsis seedlings (Menke et al., 2001 Mut. Res. 493, 87-93). This agent is used in preference to gamma irradiation, which causes high levels of oxidative damage to cellular components. These experiments will characterise for the first time the transcriptional responses of Arabidopsis cells to the specific induction of DNA strand breaks. The transcript profile will also be determined in untreated atku80 mutants. This experiment will identify the components of novel and previously characterised DNA repair pathways up regulated in the mutant background. Finally, transcript analysis of bleomycin treated atku80 mutants and comparison with untreated mutant plants and both untreated and treated WS plants will identify novel putative DSB repair genes up regulated in response to genotoxic stress in the absence of a Ku80 mediated DSB repair pathway.The results of these studies will provide new and important information which will be instrumental in identifying novel genes and pathways involved in DNA repair and genome stability in plants and help elucidate the fundamental differences that exist between animal and plant DSB repair processes. Experiment Overall Design: Number of plants pooled:20

Dataset Information

Transcription profiling of Arabidopsis mutants lacking the K+ channels, akt1, cngc1 and cngc4.

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