Notes on Plant and Animal Genomes conference #PAG30 (V)

Wednesday 18012023

Oliver Ryder, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. He talks about conservation genomics. For instance, he explains how the genomes of extinct species can be used to estimate genetic load and effective population size. On extant species, genome sequences can be used to estimate heterozygosity for instance (Californian condor > Andean condor). He then moves to technological possibilities to rescue/clone[nearly-]extinct species if we are able to crioperserve DNA and tissues. San Diego’s zoo has its own FrozenZoo for this.

Thomas Blein, Institute of Plant Sciences Paris-Saclay. MARS lncRNA regulates the coexpression of a gene cluster, recruits a TF to a promoter, controls a chromatin loop and coordinates epigenetically the expression of neighbor genes, in response to ABA: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35150931 . You can read there that “The enrichment of co-regulated lncRNAs in clustered metabolic genes in Arabidopsis suggests that the acquisition of novel non-coding transcriptional units may constitute an additional regulatory layer driving the evolution of biosynthetic pathways”.

Peijian Cao, China Tobacco Gene Research Center. Starts by presenting lncRNAs that encode small peptides (https://academic.oup.com/bib/article/20/5/1853/5047384, http://14.139.61.8/PlantPepDB/index.php). In his experiments they track the expression of lncRNAs in response to herbivores. They find that different lncRNAs coexpress with genes in the biosynthetic pathway to that produces JA. They also have evidence of encoded small peptides being produced upon binding to ribosomes. These peptides are as stable as common proteins.

Hikmet Budak, Montana BioAg Inc. Presents work on lncRNAs on different wheats to try and control pest insects.

Josephine Herbst, VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology.