Format: ORAL

Sridevi Sureshkumar

School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Australia

We identified an association between trinucleotide repeat expansion and phenotypic changes under elevated temperatures in the wild-type Arabidopsis strain. Trinucleotide repeats are part of microsatellite repeats, and their expansion has been linked to several human genetic disorders. However, the underlying mechanisms by which these repeats regulate gene expression remain unknown. Can we address this fundamental biological gap using Arabidopsis as a natural model for repeat expansion to investigate the molecular mechanisms associated with gene expression? Over the years, we have developed Arabidopsis as a natural model to uncover the molecular mechanisms associated with repeat expansion-induced gene silencing. Recently, we discovered two molecular mechanisms that induce epigenetic gene silencing at the repeat-expanded locus. I will describe the novel genes and pathways we have uncovered. Our findings provide important insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the association between trinucleotide repeat expansion and pathogenesis in Arabidopsis. Overall, our study has significant implications for understanding the underlying mechanisms of repeat-induced gene regulation and pathogenesis not only in plants but also in understanding the human genetic disorders associated with trinucleotide repeat expansions.