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GDCB Special Seminar: 'Network Walking: Revealing How Nutrient Signals Travel Through Gene Regulatory Networks'

Feb 21, 2019 - 4:10 PM
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Matthew BrooksSpeaker — Matthew Brooks, NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Plant Systems Biology Lab at New York University

Title — Network Walking: Revealing How Nutrient Signals Travel Through Gene Regulatory Networks

Abstract — Rapid reprogramming of gene regulatory networks enables cells to adapt to a changing environment. Determining how signals travel through these networks requires linking transcription factor (TF)-triggered changes in gene expression to downstream effects. By increasing the throughput of a cell-based TF-perturbation assay we were able to identify the direct regulated targets of 33 nitrogen (N)-responsive TFs that control 88% of genes that respond to N in Arabidopsis. This revealed a duality where each TF acts as an inducer and repressor, and cis-motifs determined in vitro are largely specific to the direction of regulation. Validated TF-targets were used to refine a time-inferred network and connect 145 N-responsive TFs and 311 targets. These data were combined in order to ‘Network Walk’ from direct TF-regulated targets identified in cells to indirect targets responding only in planta. The resulting networks address how TFs work individually and in combination to regulate gene expression and nutrient response.

Host — Justin Walley