Analysis of RNaseIII function in Arabidopsis

microRNA (miRNA), short interfering RNA (siRNA) and piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) represent three categories of small RNA (20 to 30-nucleotides long), which control genome stability and development in eukaryotes. These small RNA regulate the expression of endogenous genes, control the movement of transposable elements, participate to the formation of heterochromatin, and protect cells against pathogens (viruses, bactéria). Plants don’t have piRNA but have miRNA and several types of siRNA, which are produced by four RNase III enzymes called DCL (for Dicer-like). These four DCL produce small RNA of different size and exhibit both specialization and functional redundancies. Beside DCL, plants have genes encoding RNaseIII of unknown function called RTL (for RNaseIII-like). This project aims at characterizing the biochemical activity of the five Arabidopsis RTL and determining their biological role in the plant. This project uses genetics (mutants as well as transgenic plants and yeast), biochimistry (RNA and protein analyses), and bioinformatics (highthrough-put sequencing of small RNA in plants and yeast).

PhD subject IJPB 2010 from research group Epigenetics and small RNAs