Genome-wide identification of mis-spliced/intron-retained transcripts in Arabidopsis thaliana rcf1-1 mutant plants under cold stress as determined by tiling array analysis.

Cold stress is one of the most severe environmental conditions which cause huge losses in crop production worldwide. We identified a DEAD box RNA helicase, RCF1 (Regulator of CBF gene expression 1) that controls pre-mRNA splicing of cold-stress-responsive genes including positive and negative regulators of CBF genes. We used whole genome tiling array analysis under cold stress to identify transcripts which are mis-spliced/intron-retained in rcf1-1. Fourteen-day-old wild type and rcf1-1 seedlings grown on MS agar medium (1x MS salts, 2% sucrose, 0.6% agar, pH 5.7) were subjected to cold stress at 4°C for 12 h. Total RNA was extracted with Trizol reagent (Invitrogen) and synthesized into double-stranded DNA that was hybridized to whole genome tiling arrays (Affymetrix Arabidopsis Tiling1.0R). All hybridizations were performed with 3 biological replicates.