PHYSCOMITRELLA PATENS AS A MODEL SYSTEM TO STUDY AUTOPHAGY INDUCED BY NUTRIENT DÉFICIT

FINELLO J; PLAZA ROJAS P; ENET A; OTAIZA GONZÁLEZ SN; BELLAGIO T; GONZALEZ C; ROBERT G; LASCANO HR; SAAVEDRA-BORELLI LS

Córdoba

Congreso; XXXII Reunión Argentina de Fisiología Vegetal (RAFV) y XVI Congreso Latinoamericano de Fisiología Vegetal; 2018

Sociedad Argentina de Fisiología Vegetal

Macroautophagy is an evolutionarily conserved cellular degradation process that targets and recycles components from unwanted proteins or damaged organelles,thus being a process of fundamental importance forthe maintenance of cellular homeostasis in eukaryoticorganisms. Studies with ATG (AuTophagic Genes) mutantsshow that defects in autophagy compromise viability,growth, development, productivity, and responsesto nutrient deficit, abiotic and biotic stress conditions.The moss Physcomitrella patens has become a modelsystem due to its amenability for evo-devo studies andgene targeting by homologous recombination, yet autophagyhas been largely unexplored in comparisonwith other plant model organisms. In this study, weshow that the core ATG system is conserved in P. patensin comparison with higher plants and that the fyvePpATG8a-e autophagy marker genes are induced undernutrient déficit conditions. Using a knock-in line whichexpress the endogenous PpATG8e promoter fused toGFP-PpATG8e we show autophagy induction under carbonand nitrogen déficit by microscopy and westernblot. We generated atg5 and atg7knock out moss linesand a characterizarion of their phenotype which is hipersensitiveto darkness and nitrogen déficit is presented.Our results lay a foundation for further studies andprovide an evolutionary perspective of autophagic processin plants.