The cold stress transcriptome of Oryza officinalis

Oryza officinalis is regarded as the model for the CC-genome and Officinalis-complex of the genus Oryza. It has also been shown to be the most accessible alien genetic donor for wide hybridization in rice, outside of the AA-genome Sativa-complex. Recent bioclimatic models placed O. officinalis among the promising donors of abiotic stress tolerance. However, no systematic studies have been conducted to date to assess the true potential of O. officinalis as donor of novel stress tolerance mechanisms. To address this knowledge gap, we are using a transcriptomic approach to dissect the cold stress regulatory networks of reference O. officinalis genotype (IRGC100896), and compare it with the network signatures of O. sativa ssp. japonica cv. Nipponbare, which not only represents the model for genomic studies in rice, but also exhibit comparable magnitude of cold tolerance as O. officinalis. Our goal is to uncover both shared and distinct regulatory signatures that can explain stress physiological similarities and differences across the two reference genotypes.