Alternative splicing in plants - novel regulatory mechanisms and its biological implications in the control of gene expression

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Alternative splicing (AS) of precursor mRNAs is widespread in plants and affects expression of more than one fifth of all genes involved in a variety of biological processes. In plants, regulation of AS is poorly understood. The recent analysis of metabolite-dependent riboswitch control in eukaryotes demonstrated a previously unknown RNA-based regulatory principle for this process. This proposal aims at elucidating novel mechanisms for control of AS in plants and to unravel its implications in gene expression. A genome-wide search will be performed to identify conserved RNA elements in plants and their impact on AS and gene regulation will be established by structure-function analyses. Furthermore, the role of plant polypyrimidine tract binding proteins will be investigated, the mammalian homologues of which are known to act as regulators of AS in the control of developmental processes. Besides global analysis of AS, the impact of the mRNA surveillance pathway nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) on plant gene expression via turnover of unstable splice variants will be assessed and additional fundamental aspects of this largely unsought process in plants will be addressed. It is expected that this work will provide novel insight into gene regulation by the interplay of AS and NMD and highlight its biological significance in plants. Furthermore, the information obtained from studying naturally occurring RNA switches will be used to develop engineered gene control elements.