Page 202 - PC2019 Program & Proceedings

PLANT CANADA 2019

S189. Canadensys: what’s new and future directions in biodiversity data publication
Bruneau, A.; C. Sinou; J. Goimard; L. Brouillet
Université de Montréal

Since the development of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) more than a billion
standardised occurrences have been made available, ranging widely in taxonomy, geography and history.
The national and regional nodes structure developed by GBIF to facilitate publication of data is serving
well its purpose, giving capacity to each country or network to take care of datasets linked to their own
biodiversity and history. Canadensys has been publishing biodiversity data to GBIF since 2011 and
became an official associate node for Canada in 2014. Canadensys has grown from 9 institutions to nearly
25, including Canadian universities, museums, as well as municipalities and non-governmental
organisations, from which we aggregate curated datasets and publish over 5.5 million records. Keeping an
established network alive while continuing to grow and to develop new methods and technologies is a
challenge, especially in a context where institutions are separated across large distances and where funds
are scarce. In 2017, we migrated from an in-house Explorer, to a Living Atlases framework, to improve
visualisation and search functions, and to better respond to our growing data needs. Despite the universal
accessibility to GBIF and its improved discovery and visualisation tools, Canadensys continues to play a
crucial role by offering national expertise and garnering community involvement. We will continue to
develop tools that allow data-usage fit for the needs of Canadian networks.

Anne Bruneau (anne.bruneau@umontreal.ca)

S190. Herbivory induced Decadienal deferentially regulates light harvesting complex mRNAs at the
level of transcription and mRNA stability in the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum
*
Islam, S. ; T. Sabharwal; T. Bullock; M. Mehdy
University of Texas, Austin

During herbivory, various diatom species release toxic polyunsaturated aldehydes (PUAs) as a defense
response to impair grazers’ reproduction as well as affect neighboring unwounded diatom cells. Diatoms
exposed to low concentrations of PUA developed increased survival to toxic concentrations of PUA and
maintained photosynthetic efficiency. The contribution of photosynthetic gene regulation as a survival
strategy is poorly understood. This study investigated photosynthetic light harvesting complex (LHC)
genes regulation in the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum in response to a model PUA, 2E, 4E-
Decadienal (DD). Analysis of RNA-seq showed an overall suppression of LHC mRNA levels at 3 h
compared to the solvent control. Two LHC mRNAs were selected for further study; significantly
upregulated Lhcf15, and down-regulated Lhcf2 mRNAs. Transcription rate of Lhcf15 mRNA rapidly
increased and its mRNA half-life was highly stabilized through 9 h. While, transcription rate of Lhcf2 was
strongly suppressed and its mRNA half-life decreased through 3 h then increased by 9 h. Thus, the
differential effects of DD on the steady-state levels of Lhcf2 and Lhcf15 mRNAs involved regulation at
the levels of transcription and mRNA stability. The significance of these gene regulatory mechanisms is
unknown but may enhance the opportunity to survive under herbivory stress by adjusting resource
allocation. Understanding this mechanism may enable enhancement of cell growth and photosynthetic
efficiency in herbivory for commercially cultivated microalgae population.

Shahima Islam (shahima@utexas.edu)

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