Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Date: Feb 2, 2015. Zehong Ding: Comparison of leaf gradient transcriptomics in multiple C3 and C4 species

Zehong Ding is a Postdoctoral Associate at the BRC Bioinformatics Facility on campus.

Transferring C4 photosynthesis into C3 crops has been proposed as one of the most promising ways to increase the yield ceiling and hence global productivity. To better understand the function of C4 photosynthesis, and to identify candidate genes that associated with C4 pathway, comparative transcriptomes were conducted along a leaf developmental gradient in maize, viridis, sorghum and rice. In total 478 C4 candidate genes were identified. Besides the classical C4 genes, many function well characterized genes that associated with light reaction, starch and sucrose metabolism, hormone, TFs, and transporters were included. These findings will provide important insights into the gene differentiation between C3 and C4 species. In addition, the C4 candidate genes that identified in our approach would be a useful gene resource that could be used for C4 engineering of C3 crops.

Date: Feb 2, 2015
Time: 11:00 AM
Location: Weill hall, Room 321
Slides