Chromatin-based regulation of gene expression.

Research focuses into the biology of long-lived plants, different from Arabidopsis, tomato or grass species that are widely studied. In the European larch the diplotene stage lasts approximately 5 months and it is possible to divide it into several substages and to observe each of them in details. The aim of our studies is to examine whether chromatin relaxation during the diplotene is accompanied by the synthesis and maturation of mRNA. The results reveal a correlation between the chromatin condensation and transcriptional activity (Kołowezo-Lubnau et. al 2015). We also found decreasing amount of mRNA synthesis in the consecutive diffusion stages. During the early diffusion stages, mRNA is intensively synthesized. In the nuclei large amounts of RNA polymerase II, and high levels of snRNPs were observed. In the late diffusion stages, the synthesized mRNA is not directly subjected to translation but it is stored in the nucleus, and later transported to the cytoplasm and translated. In the last diffusion stage, the level of poly(A) RNA is low, but that of splicing factors is still high. It appears that the mRNA synthesized in early stages is used during the diplotene stage and is not transmitted to dyad and tetrads. In contrast, splicing factors accumulate and are most likely transmitted to the dyad and tetrads, where they are used after the resumption of intense transcription.