Advisor(s)
Shahid Mukhtar
Committee Member(s)
Alex Harkess
Karolina Mukhtar
Peggy Biga
Raju Rangappa
Shahid Mukhtar
School
College of Arts and Sciences
Document Type
Dissertation
Department (new version)
Biology
Date of Award
1-6-2025
Abstract
The regulation of gene expression in plant responses to drought has been thoroughly in-vestigated in previous studies. Despite this, a detailed understanding of the cell type-specific regulatory mechanisms, encompassing multi-layered biological processes, is lack-ing. In this study, we report the use of single nucleus multiomic analysis in Arabidopsis seedlings in response to drought stress. Our single-nuclei RNA (snRNA) analysis deline-ated 14 distinct clusters representing major root and shoot cell types and discovered new cell type-specific drought markers. Integration of snRNA with single-nuclei ATAC (snATAC) data in leaf epidermis, root endodermis, and guard cells revealed accessible chromatin regions (ACRs)-linked genes predominantly enriched in pathways responsive to drought, heat, and light. Motif enrichment analysis and gene regulatory network (GRN) inference highlighted key transcription factors (TFs), and regulatory networks re-lated to ethylene signaling pathways in endodermis as well as circadian rhythms in both endodermis and guard cells. Pseudotime analysis identified critical transcriptomic pro-gression from metabolic process to stress response within three cell types. Overall, this study elucidates drought-related regulatory mechanisms in Arabidopsis at single-cell reso-lution, providing valuable insights into the fundamental regulatory events involved in stress responses. It also serves as a reference for future single cell multiomic investigations in crop plants.
ProQuest ID
Recommended Citation
Liu, Jinbao, "Single Nucleus Multiomics Reveals The Drought-Driven Gene Regulatory Atlas In Arabidopsis" (2025). All ETDs from UAB. 7268.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/7268
