Transcriptome analysis of plant sulphate starvation and resupply

Sulphur is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and development. Reaching a thorough understanding of the molecular basis for changes in plant metabolism depending on the sulphur-nutritional status at the systems level will advance our basic knowledge and help target future crop improvement. Although the transcriptional responses induced by sulphate starvation have been studied in the past, knowledge of the regulation of sulphur metabolism is still fragmentary. This work focuses on the discovery of candidates for regulatory genes such as transcription factors (TFs) using omics technologies. For this purpose a short term sulphate-starvation / re-supply approach was used. ATH1 microarray studies and metabolite determinations yielded 21 TFs which responded more than 2-fold at the transcriptional level to sulphate starvation. Categorization by response behaviors under sulphate-starvation / re-supply and other nutrient starvations such as nitrate and phosphate allowed determination of whether the TF genes are specific for or common between distinct mineral nutrient depletions. Extending this co-behavior analysis to the whole transcriptome data set enabled prediction of putative downstream genes. Additionally, combinations of transcriptome and metabolome data allowed identification of relationships between TFs and downstream responses, namely, expression changes in biosynthetic genes and subsequent metabolic responses. Effect chains on glucosinolate and polyamine biosynthesis are discussed in detail. The knowledge gained from this study provides a blueprint for an integrated analysis of transcriptomics and metabolomics and application for the identification of uncharacterized genes.

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Bielecka M, Watanabe M, Morcuende R, Scheible WR, Hawkesford MJ, Hesse H, Hoefgen R