Investigation of Arabidopsis WHIRLY1 function in early seedling development

WHIRLY1 (WHY1) belongs to a plant-specific transcription factor family characterized by a conserved single-stranded DNA (ssDNA)-binding domain that supports the binding of DNA or RNA. Besides, many WHIRLIES are located in the nucleus and other nucleic acid-containing organelles, i.e., chloroplast and mitochondrion. In Arabidopsis thaliana, AtWHIRLY1 was reported to play significant roles in later stages of development, including flowering and leaf senescence, as well as biotic and abiotic stress responses, as results from studying a T-DNA insertion line. In this project, a novel Arabidopsis WHIRLY1 knock-out mutant prepared by CRISPR/Cas9, named why1-5, was investigated at the seedling stage. RNA-sequencing was performed with whole five-day-old seedlings of the why1-5 line and the wild type to gain insights into the function of AtWHIRLY1 in regulating nuclear genes.