Research Projects

Gamete development in organisms is a tightly regulated process that involves the silencing of transposable elements and imprinting of the genome. Small non-coding RNAs play a significant role in the plant meiotic cycle, and recent studies have identified meiosis-specific miRNAs in different plants. However, transcriptional regulation of these miRNAs is not experimentally established yet. This project aims to identify key factors regulating the transcription of miRNAs during meiosis. The objectives include investigating conserved regulatory regions within upstream sequences of meiosis-specific miRNAs expressed in Arabidopsis, in vitro identification of specific transcription factors/s binding to the conserved sequence, and in vivo confirmation of regulatory mechanisms controlling miRNA expression during meiosis. A pilot study of Arabidopsis ms-miRNAs with known targets showed the enrichment of target mRNAs related to SPL, R2R3-MYB, ARFs, SCARECROW-LIKE, and TAS3 gene family members, which are involved in male and/or female gamete development. The proposed work will extend our knowledge to regulatory mechanisms acting upstream to miRNAs that negatively regulate meiosis-specific factors in vegetative tissue. Investigation about these mechanisms to fine-tune meiosis-specific miRNAs is important to understand the developmental control of the onset and successful completion of meiosis. Experiments will include a whole-genome screen through yeast monohybrid or ligand binding assay, Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay, and molecular characterization of T-DNA knockout mutant lines for confirmed trans-acting factors.