BMB Reports (Sep 2013)
Splicing and alternative splicing in rice and humans
Abstract
Rice is a monocot gramineous crop, and one of the mostimportant staple foods. Rice is considered a model species formost gramineous crops. Extensive research on rice hasprovided critical guidance for other crops, such as maize andwheat. In recent years, climate change and exacerbated soildegradation have resulted in a variety of abiotic stresses, suchas greenhouse effects, lower temperatures, drought, floods,soil salinization and heavy metal pollution. As such, there isan extremely high demand for additional research, in order toaddress these negative factors. Studies have shown that thealternative splicing of many genes in rice is affected by stressconditions, suggesting that manipulation of the alternativesplicing of specific genes may be an effective approach for riceto adapt to abiotic stress. With the advancement ofmicroarrays, and more recently, next generation sequencingtechnology, several studies have shown that more than half ofthe genes in the rice genome undergo alternative splicing. Thismini-review summarizes the latest progress in the research ofsplicing and alternative splicing in rice, compared to splicingin humans. Furthermore, we discuss how additional studiesmay change the landscape of investigation of rice functionalgenomics and genetically improved rice. [BMB Reports 2013;46(9): 439-447]
