''Gene regulatory dynamics of germinating seeds from bulk tissue to single-cell resolution''

Associate Prof Mathew Lewsey

La Trobe Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Food

La Trobe University

Bundoora

AUSTRALIA

Tuesday, October 25, 2022
11:00

“Seeds provide 70% of global food resources, being the most valuable output from plant production. They also play a critical role in agriculture because the lifecycle of most crops begins from seed germination. Uniform germination enables growers to achieve optimal plant-spacing and harvesting time. Despite this importance, we do not have a complete understanding of how seed germination is regulated, which limits our ability to improve its properties. We have made much progress identifying regulators by traditional bulk-tissue 'omics approaches. Through these we have discovered transcription factors that control both gene expression and the progress of germination. However, the seed is a complex structure comprised of many tissues and cell-types, each of which have distinct properties. Changes in gene expression occur in these cell-types throughout germination and are expected to be context-dependent, to enable spatiotemporal control of cellular processes. To better understand how gene expression is controlled within individual seed cell-types we have carried out single-cell RNA-Seq in germinating Arabidopsis embryos. We analysed seeds at three time points after stratification: 12 hours (mucilage excretion), 24 hours (testa rupture) and 48 hours (radicle emergence). We then identified individual cell-types within the embryo, annotated their identities and studied how they changed over time. This study provides unprecedented insight into the transcriptome of the germinating Arabidopsis embryo and genome regulatory network during seed germination. It will help us to develop practical solutions to promote the seed-to-seedling transition and to ensure germination happens uniformly at the right time.”

Jozef Schell seminar room
Technologiepark 71 - 9052 

Genome editing, cutting-edge technology for a sustainable agriculture