Measurement of temperature affects on Arabidopsis transcription and decay rates

The goal of this study is to measure Arabidopsis mRNA transcription and mRNA decay rates genome wide at two temperatures, and thus to calculate the temperature coefficient of both processes. Sensing and response to ambient temperature is important for controlling growth and development of many organisms, in part by regulating mRNA levels. mRNA abundance can change with temperature, but it is unclear whether this results from changes to transcription or decay rates and whether passive or active temperature regulation is involved. Results Using a base analogue labelling method we directly measured the temperature coefficient (Q10) of mRNA synthesis and degradation rates of the Arabidopsis transcriptome. We show that for most genes transcript levels are buffered against passive increases in transcription rates by balancing passive increases in the rate of decay. Strikingly, for temperature-responsive transcripts, increasing temperature raises transcript abundance primarily by promoting faster transcription relative to decay and not vice versa, suggesting a global transcriptional mechanism process exists for the activethat controls of mRNA abundance by temperature/

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Sidaway-Lee K, Costa MJ, Rand DA, Finkenstadt B, Penfield S