Abstract Detail

Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Evo-Devo)

Najaf-Panah, Mohammad J. [1], Small, Ian [2], Strickler, Susan [3], Bailey, C. Donovan [4].

Patterns of Pentatricopeptide Gene Family Diversification in Leucaena trichandra.

Members of the pentatricopeptide repeat gene family are responsible for many aspects of organellar and cytosolic RNA translation initiation and RNA processing, including splicing, 5’ transcript maturation, and RNA editing. These nuclear encoded genes comprise one of the largest gene families in plants, where their proteins are known to function during RNA maturation in mitochondria, plastids, and in the endoplasmic reticulum. They consist of 30-40 amino acid motifs arranged in tandem arrays (2-30 PPR motifs per protein) that produce a sequence-specific recognition site that binds to a target RNA. In this study, we characterized PPRs in Leucaena trichandra and fifteen other legumes to investigate patterns of PPR diversification. All open reading frame (ORFs) were extracted from each genome and aligned against the PPR motifs using hidden Markov model (HMM) profiles. A post-processing script was implemented to filter out short and low-score PPRs. The de novo identified PPRs were mapped onto each chromosome/scaffold and the results were compared to available genome annotations for each species. The total number of PPRs per genome ranged from 1542 to 508 in Leucaena trichandra and Lablab purpureus, respectively. For further studies we will look at the origin(s) of PPR diversity and the relative frequency of mitochondrial RNA-editing among species of legumes to identify whether the variation in the number of PPRs in the nuclear genome correlates with frequency of editing in the mitochondrion.

1 - New Mexico State University, Computer Science, Bioinformatics Division, 2450 Hagerty Rd, apt 9, Las Cruces, NM, 88001, USA
2 - The University of Western Australia, ARC Centre for Plant Energy Biology, 35 Stirling Highway, Room 4.73, Bayliss Building, Perth campus, Perth, Perth, 6009, Australia
3 - Boyce Thompson Institute For Plant Research , 533 Tower Road, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States
4 - New Mexico State University, Biology, Rm 120 Foster Hall (Stores), Dept Of Biology - New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, United States

Keywords:
Pentatricopeptide Repeat
Leucaena trichandra
Mitochondrial RNA-editing 
PPR diversification
RNA processing
Organellar transcriptome.

Presentation Type: Poster
Session: P, Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Evo-Devo) Posters
Location: Arizona Ballroom/Starr Pass
Date: Monday, July 29th, 2019
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: PEV004
Abstract ID:926
Candidate for Awards:Developmental and Structural Section best poster