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Non-coding RNA networks regulating leaf vegetative desiccation tolerance in the resurrection plant Xerophyta humilis.

Common to orthodox seeds, desiccation tolerance (DT) is exceedingly rare in the vegetative tissues of modern angiosperms, being limited to a small number of "resurrection plants". While the molecular mechanisms of DT, as well as the transcription factors regulating the seed and vegetative DT program...

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Main Author: Milborrow, Evan
Other Authors: Illing, Nicola
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology 2019
Subjects:
Molecular and Cell Biology
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access_status_str Open Access
author Milborrow, Evan
author2 Illing, Nicola
author_browse Illing, Nicola
Milborrow, Evan
author_facet Illing, Nicola
Milborrow, Evan
author_sort Milborrow, Evan
collection Thesis
description Common to orthodox seeds, desiccation tolerance (DT) is exceedingly rare in the vegetative tissues of modern angiosperms, being limited to a small number of "resurrection plants". While the molecular mechanisms of DT, as well as the transcription factors regulating the seed and vegetative DT programmes, have been identified, very little is known with regards to the role of regulatory noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). To investigate the presence and roles of possible ncRNA players, RNA-Seq was performed on desiccating Xerophyta humilis leaves and a bioinformatic pipeline assembled to identify the potential decoy lncRNAs and miRNAs present. Interaction mapping was performed, identifying a number of small regulatory networks each regulating a small subset of the desiccation transcriptome. Predicted networks were screened for function related to DT and expression consistent with functional regulatory interactions. Of the predicted networks, two appear highly promising as potential regulators of key DT response genes. The results indicate that differentially expressed (DE) desiccation response ncRNAs are present in the vegetative tissues of X. humilis and likely play a key role in the regulation of DT. This suggests that ncRNAs appear to play a more important role in DT than previously thought, and may have facilitated the evolution of vegetative DT through reprogramming of seed DT programs in vegetative tissues.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29437
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:06.076Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2019
publishDateRange 2019
publishDateSort 2019
publisher Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
publisherStr Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29437 Non-coding RNA networks regulating leaf vegetative desiccation tolerance in the resurrection plant Xerophyta humilis. Milborrow, Evan Illing, Nicola Ingle, Robert Molecular and Cell Biology Common to orthodox seeds, desiccation tolerance (DT) is exceedingly rare in the vegetative tissues of modern angiosperms, being limited to a small number of "resurrection plants". While the molecular mechanisms of DT, as well as the transcription factors regulating the seed and vegetative DT programmes, have been identified, very little is known with regards to the role of regulatory noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). To investigate the presence and roles of possible ncRNA players, RNA-Seq was performed on desiccating Xerophyta humilis leaves and a bioinformatic pipeline assembled to identify the potential decoy lncRNAs and miRNAs present. Interaction mapping was performed, identifying a number of small regulatory networks each regulating a small subset of the desiccation transcriptome. Predicted networks were screened for function related to DT and expression consistent with functional regulatory interactions. Of the predicted networks, two appear highly promising as potential regulators of key DT response genes. The results indicate that differentially expressed (DE) desiccation response ncRNAs are present in the vegetative tissues of X. humilis and likely play a key role in the regulation of DT. This suggests that ncRNAs appear to play a more important role in DT than previously thought, and may have facilitated the evolution of vegetative DT through reprogramming of seed DT programs in vegetative tissues. 2019-02-08T14:05:37Z 2019-02-08T14:05:37Z 2018 2019-02-07T09:04:45Z Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29437 eng application/pdf Department of Molecular and Cell Biology Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Molecular and Cell Biology
Milborrow, Evan
Non-coding RNA networks regulating leaf vegetative desiccation tolerance in the resurrection plant Xerophyta humilis.
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Non-coding RNA networks regulating leaf vegetative desiccation tolerance in the resurrection plant Xerophyta humilis.
title_full Non-coding RNA networks regulating leaf vegetative desiccation tolerance in the resurrection plant Xerophyta humilis.
title_fullStr Non-coding RNA networks regulating leaf vegetative desiccation tolerance in the resurrection plant Xerophyta humilis.
title_full_unstemmed Non-coding RNA networks regulating leaf vegetative desiccation tolerance in the resurrection plant Xerophyta humilis.
title_short Non-coding RNA networks regulating leaf vegetative desiccation tolerance in the resurrection plant Xerophyta humilis.
title_sort non coding rna networks regulating leaf vegetative desiccation tolerance in the resurrection plant xerophyta humilis
topic Molecular and Cell Biology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29437
work_keys_str_mv AT milborrowevan noncodingrnanetworksregulatingleafvegetativedesiccationtoleranceintheresurrectionplantxerophytahumilis

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