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Together we are on together we are off -a conserved rule for ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene regulation?

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Abstract

Eukaryotic cells carry several hundreds of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes which are clustered as tandem repeats at chromosomal loci called nucleolus organizer regions (NORs). The number of rRNA genes (dosage) that are transcriptionally active at any stage of development depends on the levels of cellular demands for protein synthesis. Although it was known for quite some time that, across eukaryotes, about 50% of rRNA genes are transcriptionally silenced during the development, how the choice is made to selectively silence a subset of rRNA genes was not understood. In this review, we summarize our recent findings from model plant Arabidopsis, which led to a new hypothesis that, rRNA genes are regulated as a cluster at the level of NORs, not at the level of individual genes. And, the chromosomal location, not the sequence, dictates the activity status of rRNA genes. We also briefly summarize findings from other eukaryotic model systems which appear to support the new hypothesis on rRNA dosage control.

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Abbreviations

NOR:

Nucleolus organizer region

ND:

Nucleolar dominance

ITS:

Internal transcribed spacer

ETS:

External transcribed spacer

ASC1:

Altered subtype content 1

rRNA:

Ribosomal ribonucleic acid

IGS:

Intergenic spacer

SNP:

Single nucleotide polymorphism

ATXR:

Arabidopsis trithorax related proteins

HDA:

Histone deacetylase

CAPS:

Cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences

dCAPS:

Derived cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences

RT-PCR:

Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction

FANoS:

Fluorescence-activated nucleolus sorting

RIL:

Recombinant inbred line

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Acknowledgements

Our work has been supported by: (1) Birla Institute of Science and Technology (BITS) Pilani, Hyderabad campus in the form of research grant to Gireesha Mohannath and Institute Fellowships to Gargi Prasad Saradadevi and Neha Priyadarshini. (2) Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India, in the form of Ramanujan Fellowship Research Grant to Gireesha Mohannath which includes research fellowship to Aveepsha Bera.

Funding

Funding has been received from Birla Institute of Science and Technology (BITS) Pilani, Hyderabad campus and Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India.

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  1. Gargi Prasad Saradadevi, Neha Priyadarshini and Aveepsha Bera contributed equally.

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Gargi Prasad Saradadevi, Neha Priyadarshini, Aveepsha Bera & Gireesha Mohannath

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  1. Gargi Prasad Saradadevi
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Correspondence to Gireesha Mohannath.

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Saradadevi, G., Priyadarshini, N., Bera, A. et al. Together we are on together we are off -a conserved rule for ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene regulation?. J. Plant Biochem. Biotechnol. 29, 743–753 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13562-020-00610-8

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