Members of the Laboratory of Seeds Molecular Biology led by Szymon Świeżewski in collaboration with Dariusz Plewczyński and his team have described a mechanism where seeds delay their germination in response to suboptimal conditions during germination. Surprisingly the mechanism is based on a novel lncRNA-mediated upregulation of an old player in seed biology – Delay of Germination 1 (DOG1) gene. The lncRNA named by the authors’ PUPPIES upregulates DOG1 expression by slowing down its transcription and loading more PolII molecules per round of DOG1 transcription. The results were published in prestigious EMBO Journal.

Full article:
https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/embj.2022112443