Modulation of temperature-sensitive alternative splicing by plant specific serine/arginine-rich proteins

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Alternative splicing is an important mechanism for the regulation of gene expression. Under high temperatures, the pre-mRNA splicing profile of many genes is altered, resulting in changes in protein abundance and diversity. For example, the levels of important transcription factors involved in heat stress response are altered due to alternative splicing. Such changes affect the ability of a plant to withstand and recover from heat stress. While the importance of this mechanism for thermotolerance is well documented, the regulation of pre-mRNA splicing under high temperatures in plants is not well understood. What are the key regulators of temperature-sensitive alternative splicing and how does their activity modulate the response to different heat stress regimes? We have identified two genes that are involved in the regulation of alternative splicing of a central heat stress transcription factor in tomato. We aim to expand this knowledge and describe the gene networks of these two regulators, identify their RNA targets and describe their mode of function in pre-mRNA splicing on a global scale. This project sets the basis for understanding an important cellular mechanism on the example of tomato which in the future can be exploited for improvement of crop thermotolerance.