A bright, sweet evolution: a molecular genetic analysis of Calvin cycle gene expression response to light and sugar in the liverwort marchantia polymorpha, and insights into Calvin cycle promoter motif enrichment in land plants

Higher plants are frequently used as model organisms in Calvin Benson Bassham cycle (CBB) research given their ease of use in the laboratory. The expression of CBB genes in higher plants is well known to be regulated by light, sugar and plant development, yet no focus has been given to lower plant CBB gene expression regulation. Marchantia polymorpha, a bryophyte in the Marchantiphyta division and newly emerging model liverwort plant, has been used in this study to demonstrate its potential use in CBB promoter evolution research. Transferring plants to darkness caused the downregulation of CBB genes MpSBPase, MpFBPase, MpPRK, MpRbcS1A and MpRbcS1B in Marchantia coinciding with the downregulation of these genes in higher plants. Marchantia CBB gene expression response to the exogenous sugars sucrose and glucose was also weakly downregulated, similar to higher plant CBB gene downregulation. However, a CBB promoter motif analysis between Marchantia and a higher plant Arabidopsis thaliana showed a major difference in over-represented motifs with an affinity to bind transcription factors responsive to light, sugar and development in MpCBB promoters compared to AtCBB promoters. Given that Marchantia is one of the earliest land plants, the findings here suggest that good model to understand the evolution of control of photosynthesis-related gene expression in the evolution of highly differentiated flowering plants.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Plant Biology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2017

Author dc:creator

• Massenburg, Lynnicia Naomi

Contributors dc:contributor

• Long, Steve
• Ort, Don
• Moose, Steve

• Marchantia polymorpha
• Liverwort
• Arabdipsis thaliana
• Dark response
• Sugar response
• Gene expression
• Calvin cycle
• Promoter motifs
• Position weight matrix analysis

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2017 Lynnicia Massenburg

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97342

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/97342