Our first Plant Molecular laboratory after pandemic¡¡¡¡¡. Excellent start with third-year biochemistry students at Universidad Austral de Chile, extraction of high quality RNA from wheat leaves.
To quickly and inexpensively detect wheat transformant plants that contain the mutation in our favorite gene generated by CRISPR, in NGPlab, we have identified restriction enzyme sites lost due to the mutation. So, if the CRISPR-Cas9 machinery managed to generate the mutation in our gene of interest, only «1 band» will be seen in an agarose gel, which cannot be digested by the restriction enzymes and will correspond to a mutant plant!!!!. This is opposite to what is observed in wild-type plants, where you will see the presence of «two bands» generated by the enzyme cutting. This way, we verify only the possible mutants by direct sequencing and optimize the lab’s resources.
This week we have been busy discussing new and interesting projects, but also enjoying the national holidays together.
We are very excited about the new NGPlab facilities at the Institute of Biochemistry and Microbiology (Valdivia, Chile). Very grateful to the Universidad Austral de Chile
Durante el año 2019 varios de los integrantes de nuestro laboratorio presentaron parte de sus investigaciones en congresos científicos nacionales e internacionales. La primera fue la Dra. Francisca Castillo quien en Julio 2019 participó del 1ST INTERNATIONAL WHEAT CONGRESS en Canada. Su presentación se tituló “Identification of a Rotamase highly inducible by heat stress treatments in wheat grains and generation of CRISPR-Cas9-induced mutants for functional analysis”. Además Francisca fue uno de los dos latinoamericanos premiados con una beca para asistir al congreso.
En el mes de Septiembre 2019, nuestro laboratorio se hizo presente en el II MOLECULAR BIOSYSTEMS CONFERENCE “EUKARYOTIC GENE REGULATION & FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS” en Puerto Varas, Chile. Allí el director del NGP lab el Dr. Javier Canales, dio una charla titulada “Transcriptomic analysis reveals tissue-specific and temporal dynamics of the sulfate starvation response in tomato plants”. Paralelamente, Carlos Lovazano (estudiante de doctorado UACh) presentó el trabajo “Nitrate transceptor NRT1.1 is involved in the coordinated regulation of nitrogen and sulfur assimilation in Arabidopsis thaliana”
Finalmente en Octubre de 2019 se realizó la XLII REUNIÓN ANUAL DE LA SBBMCH/ XIV REUNIÓN REBiVe en la ciudad de Iquique, Chile. Este congreso tuvo la particularidad congregar a dos sociedades científicas nacionales la Sociedad de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular de Chile junto con la Sociedad de Biología Vegetal de Chile bajo el concepto de “Una visión molecular e integradora de los sistemas biológicos”. Es así como el Dr. Carlos Henriquez expuso su trabajo “The transcription factor MYB75 modulates growth and the response to sulfate starvation in Arabidopsis thaliana” y la Dra. Anita Arenas presentó parte de su investigación “Physiological and molecular characterization of grain response to heat stress in different wheat ploidies”
We are very happy to receive a new member of our laboratory, Dr. Francisca Castillo who obtained a FONDECYT Postdoctoral Project 3190461 entitled «Functional analysis of a rotamase gene involved in wheat grain thermotolerance processes».
The award of the FONDECYT Regular 1190812 project entitled «Analysis of the sulfate response during wheat development to find new pathways of improvement of grain yield and quality», marks the starting point in a new agronomic adventure and the turn of our research towards «real plants» such as wheat.
http://noticias.uach.cl/principal.php?pag=noticia-externo&cod=123653
Plant Nutrition and Genomics Lab 