The Role of Transcriptomics in Plant Development and Stress Response | Chapter 7 | Current Advances in Plant Science, Molecular Biology and Health Sector

 

Transcriptomics is the study of the structure, function, and evolution of the transcriptome (i.e., the entirety of RNA transcripts produced by the genome) of a given organism or community of organisms under a variety of conditions. With the advancement of Genomic studies, different types of –OMICS have been developed like Genomics, Proteomics, Transcriptomics, Metabolomics and lastly DNA-Adductomes. These are used to understand complex biological processes as well as to identify different problems in growth, development, stress conditions and diseases in all organisms. One of the important disciplines, Transcriptomes or Transcriptomics, has been discussed here. The word Transcriptome was first used in 1990, and the study of transcriptomes was started in 1991 for the understanding of human brain function. In this discipline, all transcripts (messenger RNA/mRNA) having both coding and non-coding mRNA originating from DNA are dealt with. The analysis of the entire collection of RNA sequences (coding and non-coding sequences) of a cell is very important, as it will show when and where each gene is turned on or off under different conditions. With the help of RNA-seq technology, transcriptional activity can be measured easily, and can show transcriptomic changes in the secondary metabolic pathway at different developmental stages as well as variations in gene expression in different plant tissues and under diverse environmental stresses.  Transcriptome analysis is generally done through a special technique called Single Cell RNA Sequencing (scRNA seq) that has been discussed in detail. The role of Transcriptomics in plant development has been studied in the Shoot and Root Meristems of different plants. Its importance has also been discussed in plants under different stress conditions (both external and internal), such as biotic, abiotic, drought, salinity, etc. This study will help to identify Stress-responsive and Stress-tolerance genes (Priming Genes) having important applications in adaptation. Thus, transcriptomic studies have wide applications in plants to identify genes and their expression in the development of Shoot Apical Meristems and Root Apical Meristems. This technique can also be applied to understand differentially expressed genes under different environmental stresses.

 

Author(s) Details

Professor Satyesh Chandra Roy
Department of Botany, Centre of Advanced Study for Cell and Chromosome Research, University of Calcutta, India.

 

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