Bioinformatics Seminar
Time:
Venue: Na
29 May 2018
NaFunctional genomics of seeds
Mat LewseyLa Trobe University
tissues and cells;Seed germination and early growth is an excellent model with which to investigate functional genomics. The seed goes through a developmental progression from complete metabolic dormancy to a highly active ; growing seedling in a period of 48 to 96 h. At the start of this ; the genome is compacted into heavily methylated heterochromatin ; which must be rapidly reactivated. Germination is regulated by many factors ; including environmental sensing ; hormone signalling and transcription factor activity. These interact extensively with one-another ; forming a complex network of inputs that control the seed-to-seedling transition. Our understanding of the direct regulation of gene expression on a genome-wide scale during germination is limited currently ; as is our knowledge of the dynamic changes in the epigenome and small RNAs (sRNAs). I will discuss a study of whole seeds in which we used time-series transcriptome data and binding site maps for hundreds of transcription factors to identify key genome regulators ; and charted dynamic changes in the DNA methylome. However ; the seed is a complex structure composed of tissues with distinct roles ; each requiring their own genome regulatory program. We are investigating how these programs differ using tissue and cell-specific gene expression analyses. Moreover ; events occurring at genes are regulated by signal transduction pathways to condition responses appropriate for the environment. We have studied how gene expression fits into a broader hormone signalling pathway and developed methods to link genotype with phenotype in high-throughput ; which I will describe lastly.;;;