Harnessing alternative RNA-splicing to improve plant temperature resilience

Plants have the ability to continuously produce organs throughout their lifetime, allowing them to - within limits - adapt their development to their surroundings. However, these limits are being challenged by global warming.

To mitigate the impact of climate change on biodiversity and productivity, a deeper understanding of the molecular processes that enable plant temperature responses is crucial.

Alternative RNA splicing has been suggested to play an essential role in temperature acclimation in plants, but the underlying molecular mechanisms and whether they can be harnessed to improve plant temperature resilience remains unclear.

Our project will use a combination of molecular biology, genetics, and genomics to investigate how temperature affects the splicing capacity of plants, examine the impact of mutations in genes encoding core spliceosome components on temperature acclimation, and determine if RNA splicing can be employed to enhance temperature resilience in the plant model species Arabidopsis thaliana and hybrid aspen.

Our study will provide valuable insights into the role of RNA splicing in temperature acclimation and create tools to exploit RNA splicing to improve plant temperature resilience.

Ultimately, this knowledge will aid in mitigating plant responses to environmental changes and contribute to sustainable agriculture.