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A new study used rice seedlings to demonstrate that stress caused by warmer temperatures could trigger a RNA reaction from a plant to handle changes in its environment. Credit: Peter Nguyen
According to a team of Penn State researchers, stress caused by higher temperatures may trigger a RNA reaction of a plant or ribonucleic acid, part of the genetic messaging system of 39, a cell, to help manage this change in its environment.
In a study on rice plants, researchers found that a sudden increase in heat resulted in changes in the structure of the plant's RNA, which was linked to a loss in the number of its plants. Messenger RNA, or mRNA. The mRNA molecule is a special type of RNA that transfers DNA instructions to the ribosome of a cell during the process of making proteins.
Since plants are not able to regulate their own temperatures, like humans, or are not moving from the heat source, this process can be one of the ways plants use to cope with hot temperatures and drought, said Sarah M. Assmann, professor of biology at Waller Eberly College of Science.
Although further studies are needed, this study could be an important first step in helping farmers to produce more heat and drought resistant crops, according to researchers, who announced their results today. November (5 November) in the newspaper. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Rice is a staple food for half of the world's population and is particularly important for subsistence agriculture in some parts of the world, so it is a vital food crop", Assmann said. "With climate change – and with the goal of increasing food production to feed the world's growing population – we are still trying to understand how plants respond to climate stress. 39, future, improve crop varieties, through breeding or other mechanisms, to achieve better stress tolerance and better yields. "
Researchers looked at more than 14,000 different RNAs to look for changes in the complex structures of molecules that could signal acute heat stress, said Philip Bevilacqua, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Unlike the interlaced double-strand or double helix of the DNA molecule, RNA is single-stranded.
"Because DNA has two strands, it is really locked in very few different folds, but the RNA, because it's not related to another strand, is able to fall back on itself, so there are many more complex folds in the RNA, "said Bevilacqua.
To create heat stress, the researchers subjected a group of two-week-old rice plants to temperatures above normal – 108 degrees Fahrenheit – for only ten minutes and compared these plants to a control group of plants growing at 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
"We chose such a short time because RNA refolding is a fast process, whereas downstream processes, such as protein production, are slower and we were particularly interested in how the R & D process is going. Folded RNA, "said Bevilacqua.
The researchers found that folds in RNA from plants with heat stress were looser than those in the control group. The deployment of mRNA was then correlated with a loss of mRNA abundance, suggesting that the deployment of mRNA promotes its degradation, a method used by cells to regulate genes. expressed and when.
"One of the main things we have discovered is that there is a correlation between the RNAs that tend to grow at their ends and a reduction in the abundance of these RNAs, coded proteins, including enzymes and all the innumerable functions that proteins fulfill, "said Assmann.
According to Bevilacqua, this process provides insights into next steps for future research on crops that are more resistant to heat and drought.
"So, if the loss of structure leads to a loss of abundance and this loss is not optimal, you can imagine that we could modify the sequences of the ends of the RNA, making them more stable, and thus stabilizing the production of these proteins ".
Zhao Su, lead author of the journal, said the study also revealed new insights into gene regulation.
"This exciting study reveals a new layer of gene regulation that has not yet been appreciated," Su said. "In particular, we have shown that mRNAs encoding a specific type of regulatory protein, transcription factors, are particularly targeted for unfolding degradation at elevated temperatures."
According to Bevilacqua and Assmann, studies such as this analysis of RNA, one of the first to analyze the process of RNA in the plant itself, or in vivo, could not be performed without the Interdisciplinary team work of their laboratories. The laboratories of Bevilacqua and Assmann have been working together for about ten years, according to Assmann.
"What I think is really interesting about this particular study is that it incorporates all the skills and talents of our labs," Assmann said. "That's what makes science exciting."
Explore further:
New tool developed to profile the critical regulatory structures of RNA molecules
More information:
Zhao Su el al., "Reprogramming the genome-wide RNA structuralome by acute heat shock globally regulates mRNA abundance" PNAS (2018). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1807988115
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