The In Vivo Rice RNA Structurome in Abiotic Stress Sensing and Response

PI: Philip C. Bevilacqua（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）PI: David H. Mathews（罗切斯特大学）和Sarah M. Assmann（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）水稻是世界上三分之一以上人口的主食，也是全球产量第二重要的作物。在全球人口增长、淡水资源有限和全球气候变暖的背景下，培育抗逆性强的水稻品种显得尤为重要。这项研究有可能推进关于RNA结构如何调节不同基因表达以应对非生物胁迫的基础和应用知识，这些信息可能对作物改良有用。除了培训学生和博士后助理，该项目还将与宾夕法尼亚州立大学的SEECoS项目（http://science.psu.edu/outreach/special-programs/seecos-summer-experience-in-the-eberly-college-of-science）合作，为代表性不足的高中生提供数学和科学方面的暑期培训。该项目还将为宾夕法尼亚州立大学的一项新的伦理培训计划和基因操纵伦理模块做出贡献。所有项目成果将向公众公布。序列数据可通过http://rna.urmc.rochester.edu/和NCBI-SRA、Galaxy和单核苷酸分辨率核酸结构测绘（SNRNASM; http://snrnasm.bio.unc.edu/）website)等长期存储库获得。本项目产生的生物材料可应要求或通过Dale Bumpers国家水稻资源中心提供。当植物遭受干旱时，细胞内的分子拥挤增强，渗透物和K+浓度增加。同样，当植物受到温度胁迫时，细胞中的rna也会受到热力学影响。综上所述，这些观察结果表明，干旱和温度调节RNA折叠，RNA结构可能在调节水稻基因表达和抗逆性方面发挥核心作用。为了评估RNA结构变化对水稻基因表达调控的贡献，该项目将利用、推进和应用最近开发的体内和计算工具，在全基因组基础上揭示水稻体内RNA在干旱和温度胁迫下是如何折叠的。

PI: Philip C. Bevilacqua (Penn State University)CoPIs: David H. Mathews (University of Rochester) and Sarah M. Assmann (Penn State University) Rice is a staple food for more than 1/3 of the world's population and the second most important crop in terms of global production. Given global population growth, limited resources of fresh water, and global warming, it is very important to develop stress-tolerant varieties of rice. This research has the potential to advance both basic and applied knowledge regarding how RNA structure regulates expression of diverse genes in response to abiotic stresses, information that may useful for crop improvement. In addition to the training of students and postdoctoral associates, this project will provide summer training for underrepresented high school students in math and sciences in collaboration with the SEECoS program (http://science.psu.edu/outreach/special-programs/seecos-summer-experience-in-the-eberly-college-of-science) at Penn State. This project will also contribute to a new training program for ethics at Penn State and to an ethics module on Genetic Manipulation. All project outcomes will be made available to the public. Sequence data will be available at http://rna.urmc.rochester.edu/ and through long term repositories such as the NCBI-SRA, Galaxy, and the Single Nucleotide Resolution Nucleic Acid Structure Mapping (SNRNASM; http://snrnasm.bio.unc.edu/)website. Biological materials generated in this project will be available on request or through the Dale Bumpers National Rice Resource Center.When plants are subjected to drought, molecular crowding within cells is enhanced and osmolyte and K+ concentrations increase. Likewise, when plants are stressed from temperature, RNAs in cells are thermodynamically affected. Taken together, these observations suggest that drought and temperature regulate RNA folding, and that RNA structure may play a central role in regulating gene expression and stress tolerance in rice. To evaluate the contribution of RNA structural changes to the regulation of gene expression in rice, this project will leverage, advance and apply recently developed in vivo and computational tools to reveal, on a genome-wide basis, how RNA folds in vivo in rice during drought and temperature stress.