Publications of NIPGR Scientists

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    Molecular and expression analyses indicate the role of fusion transcripts in mediating abiotic stress responses in chickpea
    (Frontiers Media S.A., 2025) Hamid, Fiza; Zahra, Shafaque; Kumar, Shailesh
    Understanding the transcriptome diversity is essential for deciphering the transcriptional level regulation. High-throughput sequencing technologies have facilitated the detection of fusion transcripts (FTs), which are chimeric mRNA molecules derived from gene fusions due to chromosomal rearrangements or via the splicing machinery at the RNA level. In this study, we investigated the transcriptome complexity in Cicer arietinum resulting from fusion events using high-throughput RNA-Seq datasets from five tissues, i.e., stem, leaves, buds, flowers, and pods, and two abiotic stress conditions, i.e., drought and salinity. Of the 328 unique FTs identified, 69% exhibited the presence of canonical splice sites at their junction, indicating their generation via trans-splicing. Functional annotation and enrichment analyses of fusion partners suggested that these transcripts may expand functional diversity. A total of 10 FTs were validated via RT-PCR followed by Sanger sequencing, which are the first FTs described in the important legume chickpea. Expression analysis of fusion transcripts across various tissues and under abiotic stress conditions revealed evidence of context-dependent regulation. Furthermore, 120 fusion gene pairs were found to be conserved across 17 chickpea genotypes, highlighting their potential biological significance and stability within the species. Overall, these findings suggest that fusion transcripts may contribute to regulatory mechanisms underlying abiotic stress responses in chickpea.
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    Absence of correlation between chimeric RNA and aging
    (MDPI AG, 2017) Huang, Reyna; Kumar, Shailesh; Li, Hui
    Chimeric RNAs have been recognized as a phenomenon not unique to cancer cells. They also exist in normal physiology. Aging is often characterized by deregulation of molecular and cellular mechanisms, including loss of heterochromatin, increased transcriptional noise, less tight control on alternative splicing, and more stress-induced changes. It is thus assumed that chimeric RNAs are more abundant in older people. In this study, we conducted a preliminary investigation to identify any chimeric RNAs with age-based trends in their expression levels in blood samples. A chimeric RNA candidate list generated by bioinformatic analysis indicated the possibility of both negative and positive trends in the expression of chimeric RNAs. Out of this candidate list, five novel chimeric RNAs were successfully amplified in multiple blood samples and then sequenced. Although primary smaller sample sizes displayed some weak trends with respect to age, analysis of quantitative PCR data from larger sample sizes showed essentially no relationship between expression levels and age. Altogether, these results indicate that, contradictory to the common assumption, chimeric RNAs as a group are not all higher in older individuals and that placing chimeric RNAs in the context of aging will be a much more complex task than initially anticipated.