Project description:Background: The soil environment is responsible for sustaining most terrestrial plant life on earth, yet we know surprisingly little about the important functions carried out by diverse microbial communities in soil. Soil microbes that inhabit the channels of decaying root systems, the detritusphere, are likely to be essential for plant growth and health, as these channels are the preferred locations of new root growth. Understanding the microbial metagenome of the detritusphere and how it responds to agricultural management such as crop rotations and soil tillage will be vital for improving global food production. Methods: The rhizosphere soils of wheat and chickpea growing under + and - decaying root were collected for metagenomics sequencing. A gene catalogue was established by de novo assembling metagenomic sequencing. Genes abundance was compared between bulk soil and rhizosphere soils under different treatments. Conclusions: The study describes the diversity and functional capacity of a high-quality soil microbial metagenome. The results demonstrate the contribution of the microbiome from decaying root in determining the metagenome of developing root systems, which is fundamental to plant growth, since roots preferentially inhabit previous root channels. Modifications in root microbial function through soil management, can ultimately govern plant health, productivity and food security.
Project description:The root apex is an important section of the plant root, involved in environmental sensing and cellular development. Analyzing the gene profile of root apex in diverse environments is important and challenging, especially when the samples are limiting and precious, such as in spaceflight. The feasibility of using tiny root sections for transcriptome analysis was examined in this study.To understand the gene expression profiles of the root apex, Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0 roots were sectioned into Zone-I (0.5 mm, root cap and meristematic zone) and Zone-II (1.5 mm, transition, elongation and growth terminating zone). Gene expression was analyzed using microarray and RNA seq.Both the techniques, arrays and RNA-Seq identified 4180 common genes as differentially expressed (with > two-fold changes) between the zones. In addition, 771 unique genes and 19 novel TARs were identified by RNA-Seq as differentially expressed which were not detected in the arrays. Single root tip zones can be used for full transcriptome analysis; further, the root apex zones are functionally very distinct from each other. RNA-Seq provided novel information about the transcripts compared to the arrays. These data will help optimize transcriptome techniques for dealing with small, rare samples.
Project description:The root apex is an important section of the plant root, involved in environmental sensing and cellular development. Analyzing the gene profile of root apex in diverse environments is important and challenging, especially when the samples are limiting and precious, such as in spaceflight. The feasibility of using tiny root sections for transcriptome analysis was examined in this study.To understand the gene expression profiles of the root apex, Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0 roots were sectioned into Zone-I (0.5 mm, root cap and meristematic zone) and Zone-II (1.5 mm, transition, elongation and growth terminating zone). Gene expression was analyzed using microarray and RNA seq.Both the techniques, arrays and RNA-Seq identified 4180 common genes as differentially expressed (with > two-fold changes) between the zones. In addition, 771 unique genes and 19 novel TARs were identified by RNA-Seq as differentially expressed which were not detected in the arrays. Single root tip zones can be used for full transcriptome analysis; further, the root apex zones are functionally very distinct from each other. RNA-Seq provided novel information about the transcripts compared to the arrays. These data will help optimize transcriptome techniques for dealing with small, rare samples.
Project description:Paired-end RNA-Seq libraries were constructed for three root sections of the roots of barley cv. Clipper, and landrace Sahara, grown under control and salt-treated (100 mM NaCl) conditions on agar plates in quadruplicate. Experiments were conducted in a temperature-controlled growth cabinet at 17 C in the dark. After three days of germination, seminal roots were dissected according to the following steps: A 1.5 mm long section marked Zone 1 (meristematic zone) was taken from the root tip. A second section (Zone 2) was dissected from the elongation zone up to a third section, Zone 3 (maturation zone), which was excised at the point of visible root hair elongation up to 34 of the entire root. Four biological replicates were generated for each sample in four separate experiments totaling 48 samples. All RNA-seq libraries were constructed and paired-end sequenced (100 bp) on an Illumina HiSeq 2000 system at the Australian Genome Research Facility (Melbourne, Australia).
Project description:Arabidopsis seedlings, of both wild-type and an ARF7/ARF19 double knockout mutant, were grown to 7 days post-germination. The roots were then dissected into 5 developmental zones, the meristem, early elongation zone, late elongation zone, mature root and lateral root zone. The sections then underwent transcriptional profiling to identify processes and regulatory events specific and in common to the zones.
Project description:We combined transcriptomic profiling of auxin related mutants with genetic and biochemical approaches and live-cell imaging techniques of Arabidopsis roots to understand the role of auxin-driven gibberellin level changes during root development, particularly root cell elongation. We show that auxin negatively regulates the level of gibberellin in root elongation zone. Auxin signalling steers the expression of gibberellin deactivating enzymes - GIBBERELLIN 2-OXIDASES (GA2OX) exclusively in root elongation zone. Interestingly, GA2OX8 expression is high in tissues with elevated auxin levels, such as vasculature or stem cell niche, fitting with the observed effect of auxin on gibberellin level. Here we show that GA2OX enzymes are negative regulators of root cell elongation. Gibberellin decrease caused by GA2OX8 overexpression inhibits root cell elongation. In contrast, roots missing GA2OX genes elongate faster. These findings indicate that GA2OX8 enzymes represent an integration core of auxin and gibberellin signalling pathway in root elongation zone, vascular development and regulation of stem cell niche. Our results enhance understanding of complex mechanisms controlling root cell elongation.
Project description:Low phosphate concentrations are frequently a constraint for maize growth and development, and therefore, enormous quantities of phosphate fertilizer are expended in maize cultivation, which increases the cost of planting. Low phosphate stress not only increases root biomass but can also cause significant changes in root morphology. Low phosphate availability has been found to favor lateral root growth over primary root growth by dramatically reducing primary root length and increasing lateral root elongation and lateral root density in Arabdopsis. While in our assay when inbred line Q319 subjected to phosphate starvation, The numbers of lateral roots and lateral root primordia were decreased after 6 days of culture in a low phosphate solution (LP) compared to plants grown under normal conditions (sufficient phosphate, SP), and these differences were increased associated with the stress caused by phosphate starvation. However, the growth of primary roots appeared not to be sensitive to low phosphate levels. This is very different to Arabidopsis. To elucidate how low phosphate levels regulate root modifications, especially lateral root development, a transcriptomic analysis of the 1.0-1.5 cm lateral root primordium zone (LRZ) of maize Q319 treated after 2 and 8 days by low phosphate was completed respectively. The present work utilized an Arizona Maize Oligonucleotide array 46K version slides, which contained 46,000 maize 70-mer oligonucleotides designated by TIGR ID, and the sequence information is available at the website of the Maize Oligonucleotide Array Project as the search item representing the >30,000 identifiable unique maize genes (details at http://www.maizearray.org). Keywords: low phosphate, Lateral Root Primordium Zone, maize Two-condition experiment, low phosphate treated lateral root primordium zone of maize root vs. normal cultrued lateral root primordium zone. Biological replicates: 9 control, 9 treated, independently grown and harvested. One replicate per array.
Project description:To identify key miRNAs involved in root meristem formation in M. truncatula, deep sequencing was used to compare the miRNA populations dreived from four tissues. These were; root tip tissue, containing the root apical meristem, elongation zone tissue, root forming callus tissue and non-root forming callus tissue. We identified 83 previously reported miRNAs, 24 new to M. truncatula, in 44 families. For the first time in M. truncatula, members of conserved miRNA families mir165, miR181 and miR397 were found. Bioinformatic analysis identified 38 potential novel miRNAs. Many miRNAs were differentially expressed between tissues, particularly RFC and NRFC.
Project description:As an important adaptation to drought stress, several agronomic species, such as soybean and maize, can maintain the primary root substantial elongation rates at low water potentials, whereas shoot growth stops completely. In soybean, kinematic characterization of the spatial patterns of cell expansion within the root elongation zone showed that at low water potentials, elongation rates were preferentially maintained toward the root apex but were progressively inhibited at more basal locations, resulting in a shortened growth zone. To explore the molecular mechanism of root elongation in response to water stress, we set out to examine the expression of soybean genes in different root regions after 5 hours (5h) and 48 hours (48h) water stress treatment using the Affymetrix Soybean GeneChip containing 37,500 G. max probe sets.
Project description:Arabidopsis thaliana plants were grown from seeds in Petri dishes on MS medium. 4 days old plants were co-incubated with L. bicolor without physical contact. After 2 days of co-incubation, roots were either harvested whole or separated into the root tip (ca. 1/4 of the whole root) and the lateral root zone (= remaining root).