Periodic Reporting for period 1 - UNRAVEL (Understanding the Role of Antisense lncRNA in Vernalization, Memory and Life History)
Reporting period: 2016-04-01 to 2018-03-31
In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the integration of cold as a flowering signal is controlled by the flowering repressor gene FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). During winter, prolonged cold quantitatively down-regulates FLC expression across the whole plant, acting via an “ON/OFF” epigenetic switch at the level of the single cell. A long non-coding RNA, COOLAIR, is transcribed antisense to FLC and plays a key role in this switching mechanism. Plants in which COOLAIR transcription has been blocked show slower silencing of FLC in the cold and altered epigenetic switching dynamics. Like many non-coding RNAs in other systems, COOLAIR RNA can form folded secondary structures in in vitro systems that seem to be conserved across related species. This folding may be functionally important to the silencing of FLC in winter, perhaps by recruiting proteins known to be involved in the epigenetic switch.
Here, plants with slightly altered COOLAIR sequences were produced with the intention of disrupting their folded structures. Some of the alterations generated plants with late flowering and atypical patterns of FLC silencing in cold, suggesting a functional role for the folded structure. In parallel, ongoing work in the Dean lab and collaborators, methods were developed for determining the folded structures of COOLAIR in planta, and for identifying proteins that associate with the RNA during vernalization.
Alongside scientific outcomes, this project has also achieved Horizon 2020 Work Programme goals: developing creative potential and diversifying competences through international mobility and advanced training in technical and transferable skills; enhancing contact networks for both the Fellow and host organization through academic, commercial and public engagement; and catalysing significant career development. As a result, the Fellow has secured a permanent position in research in New Zealand. The research themes and collaborations established in the UK during the course of the Fellowship will be further developed in this new research role.