Arabidopsis 2010: Transcription and Processing Requirements for Noncoding Transcripts Near SiRNA Loci in Arabidopsis

University Of California-Riverside, Riverside CA

Investigators

Abstract

In the past decade, genome-wide profiling of transcripts in plants, animals, and fungi have revealed pervasive transcription in the genome and the presence of multitudes of noncoding transcripts, which do not encode protein products. Increasing evidence points to an essential role of nuclear noncoding RNAs in the regulation of gene expression or genome stability. However, the mechanisms underlying the transcription, processing, and degradation of nuclear noncoding transcripts are almost completely unknown. This project aims to systematically identify nuclear noncoding RNAs by high-throughput sequencing, and to study the mechanisms governing the biogenesis and processing of a subset of such noncoding transcripts, the ones that participate in transcriptional gene silencing to ensure genome stability. The project is part of a long-term effort towards the full understanding of the roles of RNAs in the regulation of genes and genomes. Broader impacts: This project will illuminate the landscape and biogenesis requirements of plant noncoding RNAs, and thus set the foundation for the scientific community to dissect previously under-appreciated mechanisms of gene and genome regulation. The project will bridge disciplines through collaboration between biologists and computer scientists, train postdoctoral fellows and graduate students in biology to become well versed in bioinformatics, and provide research opportunities in biology to undergraduate students including computer science students.