Spaceflight studies identify a gene encoding an intermediate filament involved in tropism pathways

Autor: Tatsiana Shymanovich, Joshua P. Vandenbrink, Raúl Herranz, F. Javier Medina, John Z. Kiss
Přispěvatelé: NASA Astrobiology Institute (US), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Shymanovich, Tatsiana, Herranz, Raúl, Medina, F. Javier, Kiss, John Z., Shymanovich, Tatsiana [0000-0001-5272-7381], Herranz, Raúl [0000-0002-0246-9449], Medina, F. Javier [0000-0002-0866-7710], Kiss, John Z. [0000-0003-1326-127X]
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname
ISSN: 2018-0993
Popis: 35 p.-5 tab.-4 tab.supl.
We performed a series of experiments to study the interaction between phototropism and gravitropism in Arabidopsis thaliana as part of the Seedling Growth Project on the International Space Station. Red-light-based and blue-light-based phototropism were examined in microgravity and at 1g, a control that was produced by an on-board centrifuge. At the end of the experiments, seedlings were frozen and brought back to Earth for gene profiling studies via RNASeq methods. In this paper, we focus on five genes identified in these space studies by their differential expression in space: one involved in auxin transport and four others encoding genes for: a methyltransferase subunit, a transmembrane protein, a transcription factor for endodermis formation, and a cytoskeletal element (an intermediate filament protein). Time course studies using mutant strains of these five genes were performed for blue-light and red-light phototropism studies as well as for gravitropism assays on ground. Interestingly, all five of the genes had some effects on all the tropisms under the conditions studied. In addition, RT-PCR analyses examined expression of the five genes in wild-type seedlings during blue-light-based phototropism. Previous studies have supported a role of both microfilaments and microtubules in tropism pathways. However, the most interesting finding of the present space studies is that NFL, a gene encoding an intermediate filament protein, plays a role in phototropism and gravitropism, which opens the possibility that this cytoskeletal element modulates signal transduction in plants.
This work was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [grant 80NSSC17K0546 to John Z. Kiss] and by the Spanish Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Desarrollo Tecnológico [Grant RTI2018-099309-B-I00, co-funded by EU-ERDF, to F. Javier Medina].
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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