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Acute Effects of Light on Alternative Splicing in Light‐Grown Plants
Author(s) -
Mancini Estefania,
Sanchez Sabrina E.,
Romanowski Andres,
Schlaen Ruben G.,
SanchezLamas Maximiliano,
Cerdán Pablo D.,
Yanovsky Marcelo J.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
photochemistry and photobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.818
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1751-1097
pISSN - 0031-8655
DOI - 10.1111/php.12550
Subject(s) - phytochrome , rna splicing , biology , alternative splicing , gene , circadian clock , photoperiodism , gene expression , arabidopsis thaliana , rna , splicing factor , microbiology and biotechnology , arabidopsis , transcriptome , genetics , mutant , messenger rna , botany , red light
Light modulates plant growth and development to a great extent by regulating gene expression programs. Here, we evaluated the effect of light on alternative splicing ( AS ) in light‐grown Arabidopsis thaliana plants using high‐throughput RNA sequencing ( RNA ‐seq). We found that an acute light pulse given in the middle of the night, a treatment that simulates photoperiod lengthening, affected AS events corresponding to 382 genes. Some of these AS events were associated with genes involved in primary metabolism and stress responses, which may help to adjust metabolic and physiological responses to seasonal changes. We also found that several core clock genes showed changes in AS in response to the light treatment, suggesting that light regulation of AS may play a role in clock entrainment. Finally, we found that many light‐regulated AS events were associated with genes encoding RNA processing proteins and splicing factors, supporting the idea that light regulates this posttranscriptional regulatory layer through AS regulation of splicing factors. Interestingly, the effect of a red‐light pulse on AS of a gene encoding a splicing factor was not impaired in a quintuple phytochrome mutant, providing unequivocal evidence that nonphotosensory photoreceptors control AS in light‐grown plants.