Abstract Detail

Comparative Genomics/Transcriptomics

Johnson, Christina [1], Subramanian, Aswati [2], Pattathil, Sivakumar [3], Correll, Melanie [4], Kiss, John [5].

Comparative transcriptomics indicate changes in cell wall organization and stress response inseedlings during spaceflight.

Premise of the study: Plants will play an important role in the future of space exploration as part ofregenerative life support. Thus, it is important to understand the effects of microgravity and spaceflighton gene expression in plant development.Methods: We analyzed and compared the transcriptome results of three separate spaceflight studies withArabidopsis thaliana using the same Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC) flight hardware duringSpace Shuttle mission STS-131. Three commonly used bioinformatics methods were used to process thedata: RMA (Robust Multi-Array Average), MAS5 (Microarray Suite 5.0), PLIER (Probe LogarithmicIntensity Error Estimation). Glycome profiling further clarified differences observed in cell wallcomposition between spaceflight and ground control samples.Key Results: These comparative studies demonstrated that, even with similar hardware, biologicalmaterials, and environmental conditions, differences in results in gene expression patterns were foundamong the experiments. However, in all three spaceflight experiments, we noted expression changes ingenes that are involved in hypoxia, heatshock, DNA repair, and cell wall structure are different inspaceflight samples vs. the ground controls. In addition, glycome profiling supported our expressionanalyses in that there was a difference in cell wall structural components between ground control andspaceflight-grown plants.Conclusions: A common theme from these three space experiments was the down-regulation of waterstress response genes in spaceflight. In addition, all three studies found the differential regulation ofgenes associated with cell wall remodeling and stress response between spaceflight-grown and groundcontrol plants.

1 - Miami University, Botany, Oxford, OH - Ohio, 45056, United States
2 - Miami University, Oxford, OH - Ohio, 45056, United States
3 - Mascoma, LLC, 67 Etna Road, Lebanon, NH, 03766, USA
4 - University Of Florida, PO Box 110570, Gainesville, N/A, 32611, USA
5 - University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Biology, Greensboro, NC, 27412, USA

Keywords:
Arabidopsis
cell size
cell wall
dehydration
Transcriptome
microgravity
spaceflight.

Presentation Type: Poster
Session: P, Comparative Genomics and Transcriptomics
Location: Exhibit Hall/Omni Hotel
Date: Monday, June 26th, 2017
Time: 5:30 PM This poster will be presented at 6:15 pm. The Poster Session runs from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm. Posters with odd poster numbers are presented at 5:30 pm, and posters with even poster numbers are presented at 6:15 pm.
Number: PGT002
Abstract ID:258
Candidate for Awards:Genetics Section Poster Award