A Tissue Specific Transcriptomic, Proteomic and Phospho-proteomic Atlas of the Translational Machinery of Arabidopsis thaliana

Gene expression encompasses the flow of genetic information from DNA to mRNA (transcription) and from mRNA to protein (translation) along with the regulatory mechanisms underlying these processes. Omics technologies offer a powerful toolset with which to study gene expression at each of these stages. A recently published dataset integrating transcriptomic, proteomic and phospho-proteomic measurements from 30 Arabidopsis thaliana tissues provides a unique resource to explore gene expression.¹ The translational machinery (the ribosome, and its initiation, elongation, and termination factors) are a core component in gene expression. Defects in translation can be lethal or lead to major developmental defects and hold keys to better understand crop immunity and yield. In this work we have developed a suite of visualizations for genes found in the translational machinery for each omics dataset. Furthermore, we examine ribosomal heterogeneity across tissues and estimate the stoichiometry of subcomponents of the translational machinery. We also describe phosphorylation patterns across tissues, elucidating potential translational regulatory patterns across tissues. The conclusions of this project can be utilized to enhance understanding of the regulation of translational machinery and generate new hypotheses that can be tested in a wet lab setting.

¹Mergner, J., Frejno, M., List, M. et al. Mass-spectrometry-based draft of the Arabidopsis proteome. Nature 579, 409–414 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2094-2