Plants adapt to stressful environments

June 15, 2023

Strategy to survive using transposons

A collaborative research group of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology and the RIKEN CSRS analyzed the genome in Arabidopsis thaliana using a technique called direct RNA sequencing, which directly detects RNA molecules, and found that the plant expresses thousands of hybrid genes between genes and transposons. They also demonstrated that transposon expression levels vary depending on environmental stressors the plant was exposed to, such as extreme heat and pathogens. The findings of this study could help develop new crops that can adapt to stressful environments.

Original article

Nature Communications doi:10.1038/s41467-023-38954-z

J. Berthelier, L. Furci, S. Asai, M. Sadykova, T. Shimazaki , K. Shirasu, H. Saze,

"Long-read direct RNA sequencing reveals epigenetic regulation of chimeric gene-transposon transcripts in Arabidopsis thaliana".

Contact

Ken Shirasu; Group Director
Shuta Asai; Senior Scientist
Plant Immunity Research Group