title: Differential expression and alternative splicing of rice sulphate transporter family members regulate sulphur status during plant growth, development and stress conditions.
abstract: Sulphur, an essential nutrient required for plant growth and development, is mainly taken up by the plants as inorganic sulphate from the soil and assimilated into the sulphur reductive pathway. The uptake and transport of sulphate in plants is carried out by transporters encoded by the sulphate transporter gene family. Plant sulphate transporters have been classified with respect to their protein sequences, kinetic properties and tissue-specific localization in Arabidopsis. Though sulphate transporter genes from few other plants have also been characterized, no detailed study with respect to the structure and expression of this family from rice has been carried out. Here, we present genome-wide identification, structural and expression analyses of the rice sulphate transporter gene family. Our analysis using microarray data and MPSS database suggests that 14 rice sulphate transporters are differentially expressed during growth and development in various tissues and during biotic and abiotic stresses. Our analysis also suggests differential accumulation of splice variants of OsSultr1;1 and OsSultr4;1 transcripts during these processes. Apart from known spliced variants, we report an unusual alternative splicing of OsSultr1;1 transcript related to sulphur supply in growth medium and during stress response. Taken together, our study suggests that differential expression and alternative splicing of members of the sulphate transporter family plays an important role in regulating cellular sulphur status required for growth and development and during stress conditions. These findings significantly advance our understanding of the posttranscriptional regulatory mechanisms operating to regulate sulphur demand by the plant.
authors.affiliation: National Botanical Research Institute, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Rana Pratap Marg, Lucknow, 226 001, India.
authors.forename: Smita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Mehar Hasan
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Asif
authors.forename: Debasis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chakrabarty
authors.forename: Rudra Deo
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Tripathi
authors.forename: Prabodh Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Trivedi
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D027321:Anion Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018745:Genome, Plant; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D005810:Multigene Family; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D010802:Phylogeny; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000235:genetics; D013455:Sulfur / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D027321:Anion Transport Proteins; D013455:Sulfur