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Measurement of temperature exposure and integration over time

Reference	BBS/E/J/000CA537
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Dame Caroline Dean
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	752,152
Status	Current
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/03/2014
End date	28/02/2019
Duration	59 months

Abstract

All organisms have to cope with changing termperature and various mechanisms have evolved to protect cellular processes against thermal extremes. Some organisms exploit changing temperature to help gauge seasons and align their development with favourable conditions. Natural temperature profiles vary over timescales of weeks and months and how these enormously variable termperature signals are dcided into seasonsal timing information is unknown. We intend to discover how variable temperature signals are mesured and integrated over prolonged periods and used to time developmental decisions. Alignment of development with temperature cues is centrally important in plants so we will exploit our knowledge of the cultiple regulatory pathways determining quantitative expression of the plant developmental repressor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). These pathways, which are all independently regtulated by temperature, converge to regulate FLC via aspects of a co-transcriptional mechanism involving antisense transcripts and different chromatin pathways. This understanding provides the system to define the primary temperature steps (thermo-sensors) that directly regulate FLC and explore how they combine to record complex temperature signals. Our hypothesis is that different thermo-sensors monitor distinct aspects of the long- term temperature profile. Their outputs would be integrated voa accumulation of chromatin modifications at FLC with feedback and interconnection between the pathways providing reinforcement systems to record previous exposure. Modulation of this mechanism would then provide the basis for adaptation to different climates. Knowledge emerging from this study should provide concepts that help to understand how natural temperature signals are used by many organisms for biological timing.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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