The antisense transcriptome of the halophilic archaeon Halobacterium salinarum

Abstract

The pervasive transcription hypothesis states that all DNA of an organism is associated with at least one transcript and it has been strenghtened by the acquisison of massive transcriptomic data. An important question that arises in this context is the functionality and regulation of theses transcripts in a global gene regulatory network, specially of transcripts located antisense to annotated genes. In this research project, we will use the halophilic archaeon Halobacterium salinarum NRC-1 as a model organism to study the archaeal antisense transcriptome and its influence in the post-transcriptional regulation. Member of the third domain of life, this microbe with its unique biochemical characteristics has been used as a model in systems biology, with gene regulatory networks already stablished based on coding genes. In this project, we will use experimental approaches associated with bioinformatics tools to precisely identify H. salinarum antisense transcriptome and study its regulation upon environmental stresses and RNAses influence. The integration of highthroughput data using systems approaches will allow the formulation of new hypothesis concerning specific antisense RNAs that will be experimentally validated by overexpression and phenotypic evaluations. This project will contribute to understand the global post-transcriptional gene regulatory network of archaea, consolidating the use of systems approaches to elucidate the still incipient biology from the third domain of life. (AU)