Cytonuclear interactions modulate the plasticity of photosynthetic rhythmicity and growth in wild barley.

In plants, the contribution of the plasmotype (mitochondria and chloroplast) in controlling the circadian clock plasticity and possible consequences on cytonuclear genetic makeup have yet to be fully elucidated. A genome-wide association study in the wild barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum) B1K collection identified overlap with our previously mapped DRIVERS OF CLOCKS (DOCs) loci in wild-cultivated interspecific population.

Crops under past diversification and ongoing climate change: more than just selection of nuclear genes for flowering.

Diversification and breeding following domestication and under current climate change across the globe are the two most significant evolutionary events experienced by major crops. Diversification of crops from their wild ancestors has favored dramatic changes in the sensitivity of the plants to the environment, particularly significantly in transducing light inputs to the circadian clock, which has allowed the growth of major crops in the relatively short growing season experienced in the Northern Hemisphere. Historically, mutants and the mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTL) have facilitated the identification and the cloning of genes that underlie major changes of the clock and the regulation of flowering.

Arabidopsis plants overexpressing additional copies of heat shock protein Hsp101 showed high heat tolerance and endo-gene silencing.

Hsp101 chaperone is vital for survival of plants under heat stress. We generated transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) lines with extra copies of Hsp101 gene using diverse approaches. Arabidopsis plants transformed with rice Hsp101 cDNA driven by Arabidopsis Hsp101 promoter (IN lines) showed high heat tolerance while the plants transformed with rice Hsp101 cDNA driven by CaMV35S promoter (C lines) were like wild type plants in heat stress response.

Cpn60β4 protein regulates growth and developmental cycling and has bearing on flowering time in Arabidopsis thaliana plants.

Chloroplastic Cpn60 proteins are type I chaperonins comprising of Cpn60α and Cpn60β subunits. Arabidopsis genome contains six entries in Cpn60 family, out of which two are for Cpn60α subunit and four for Cpn60β subunit. We noted that the cpn60β4 knockout mutant plants (T-DNA insertion salk_064887 line) differed from the wild type Col-0 plants in the developmental programming.

Characterization of 5'UTR of rice ClpB-C/Hsp100 gene: evidence of its involvement in post-transcriptional regulation.

Rice (Oryza sativa) ClpB-C (OsClpB-C) protein is expressed upon heat stress in vegetative tissues and constitutively in seeds. We produced stably transformed Arabidopsis plants carrying β-glucuronidase (Gus) reporter gene downstream to 1-kb OsClpB-C promoter (1kbPro plants). In the 1kbPro plants, expression of Gus transcript and protein followed the expression pattern of OsClpB-C gene in rice plants, i.

Constitutive over-expression of rice chymotrypsin protease inhibitor gene OCPI2 results in enhanced growth, salinity and osmotic stress tolerance of the transgenic Arabidopsis plants.

Protease inhibitors are involved primarily in defense against pathogens. In recent years, these proteins have also been widely implicated in response of plants to diverse abiotic stresses. Rice chymotrypsin protease inhibitor gene OCPI2 is highly induced under salt and osmotic stresses.