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Functional genomics approach to understand heat stress response in Arabidopsis thaliana

Student name: Ms Sanchi Bhimrajka
Guide: Dr Anandita Singh
Year of completion: 2017
Host Organisation: Delhi University, New Delhi
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Prof. Anil Grover
Abstract: Due to the inevitable problem of global warming, heat stress is among the chief challenges that constricts crop productivity worldwide. Heat stress can interrupt cellular homeostasis through aggregation of native cellular proteins which further head towards lethality. Heat shock proteins (Hsps) constitute a group of molecular chaperones that are necessary for survival under such high temperature conditions. They can maintain the required equilibrium for homeostasis by facilitating protein refolding, preventing protein aggregation and degradation of aggregated proteins. There are six families of Hsps (i.e. Hsp100, Hsp90, Hsp70, Hsp60 and sHsps) defined on the basis of their molecular weight; each of which has a distinct structure and function. Several Hsps have been already proven to play significant roles in acquired thermotolerance. Acquisition of thermotolerance is an important aspect that needs extensive research to understand its molecular biology which would ultimately help to make heat tolerant plants. Few members of Hsps are also known to be constitutively expressed and are developmentally regulated. Such members may or may not perform protective functions under heat stress conditions. In this study, importance of two specific Hsps (called SAP and SIP) for survival under various heat stress conditions was established at different developmental stages. Once, it was ascertained that SAP is up-regulated during heat stress and is necessary for acquisition of thermotolerance; phenotype of SAP knockout mutant was studied under few other abiotic stress conditions. SIP was found to be an Hsp which is constitutively expressed without any up-regulation under heat stress. To ascertain the functions of SIP, sub-cellular localisation of SIP through agrobacterium-mediated infilteration in Nicotiana leaves was performed.

Key words: Heat stress, Arabidopsis, heat shock proteins, basal thermotolerance, acquired thermotolerance, molecular chaperones, sub-cellular localisation, phenotypic analysis