Speaker: Dawn Nagel, University of California-Riverside assistant professor of genetics and genomics

Title: "Understanding the mechanisms of temporal modulation of temperature stress responses in plants"

Abstract: To better attune with their environment, plants partition specific responses to the most optimal times of the day. This can be observed at the gene expression level, where a large proportion of genes exhibit rhythmic expression, with 24-h oscillations. This regulation involves the coordination between environmental signals, the circadian clock, internal cellular processes, and biological outputs. In plants, about one-third of the circadian-regulated transcriptome responds to heat stress in a time-of-day specific manner. For these genes, the magnitude of response to stress differs depending on the time of the day, a phenomenon referred to as gating. Using a combination of targeted and genome-wide approaches, our lab is characterizing selected genes whose basal expression is confined to specific periods of the day but whose heat responsiveness depends on the time of day to better understand the mechanisms and functional relevance of clock control of stress responses. By tweaking interactions in the network at different times of the day, we hope to enhance plant thermotolerance.

Host: Dior Kelley, GDCB assistant professor