2023 Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

Location

ScholarSpace, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Presentation Type

Open Access Poster Presentation

Document Type

poster

Keywords

Barley--Drought tolerance; GABA; Barley--Genetics;

Abstract

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a messenger in cellular communication. As GABA is also an enhancer in stress tolerance, this often leads to rapid accumulation during drought. . GABA increases photosynthesis and reduces water loss through the stomata (Li et al., 2021; Xu et al., 2021). The metabolization of GABA occurs via the GABA shunt, which is produced primarily from a glutamic acid catalyzed by glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) in the cytosol. GABA is imported into the mitochondria and subsequently degraded by GABA-transaminase (GABA-T) into succinic semialdehyde (SSA) . In barley, both GABA and GAD genes are induced during drought (Abebe et al., 2010) . However, the specific role of GAD and GABA-T in response to drought in barley has not been researched extensively . Previously, in our research methods, barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) was used to suppress expression of GAD and GABA-T and assess the response of plants to drought. As an invasive virus BSMV leads to sickness of barley plants. The current study used the less aggressive foxtail mosaic virus (FoMV) to silence expression of GAD and GABA-T. A quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed on RNA samples from silenced plants . Expression of GAD in silenced barley plants was down to 0.4-fold and that of GABA-T was 118.04-fold higher during drought compared with non-stressed silenced plants. High fold-change in GABA-T might indicate that the gene is over-expressed during drought and RNA-mediated silencing could not lead to the degradation of all the target transcripts. These findings suggest that both genes in the GABA shunt are regulated differently.

Start Date

28-7-2023 11:00 AM

End Date

28-7-2023 1:30 PM

Event Host

Summer Undergraduate Research Program, University of Northern Iowa

Faculty Advisor

Tilahun Abebe

Department

Department of Biology

File Format

application/pdf

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Jul 28th, 11:00 AM Jul 28th, 1:30 PM

Analysis of the Role of Gamma-Aminobutyrate (GABA) in Drought Tolerance in Barley using Virus-Induced Gene Silencing

ScholarSpace, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a messenger in cellular communication. As GABA is also an enhancer in stress tolerance, this often leads to rapid accumulation during drought. . GABA increases photosynthesis and reduces water loss through the stomata (Li et al., 2021; Xu et al., 2021). The metabolization of GABA occurs via the GABA shunt, which is produced primarily from a glutamic acid catalyzed by glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) in the cytosol. GABA is imported into the mitochondria and subsequently degraded by GABA-transaminase (GABA-T) into succinic semialdehyde (SSA) . In barley, both GABA and GAD genes are induced during drought (Abebe et al., 2010) . However, the specific role of GAD and GABA-T in response to drought in barley has not been researched extensively . Previously, in our research methods, barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) was used to suppress expression of GAD and GABA-T and assess the response of plants to drought. As an invasive virus BSMV leads to sickness of barley plants. The current study used the less aggressive foxtail mosaic virus (FoMV) to silence expression of GAD and GABA-T. A quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed on RNA samples from silenced plants . Expression of GAD in silenced barley plants was down to 0.4-fold and that of GABA-T was 118.04-fold higher during drought compared with non-stressed silenced plants. High fold-change in GABA-T might indicate that the gene is over-expressed during drought and RNA-mediated silencing could not lead to the degradation of all the target transcripts. These findings suggest that both genes in the GABA shunt are regulated differently.