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Updated: Feb 17, 2026

Preparation of Intact Tissue for Microscopic Analysis of the Endosperm Cell Layer in Developing and Mature Arabidopsis Seeds
Published on: May 16, 2025
Antisense transcription represses Arabidopsis seed dormancy QTL DOG1 to regulate drought tolerance
Ruslan Yatusevich1, Halina Fedak1, Arkadiusz Ciesielski2
1Department of Protein Biosynthesis, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Warsaw, Poland.
Abstract:
Plants have developed multiple strategies to sense the external environment and to adapt growth accordingly. Delay of germination 1 (DOG1) is a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) for seed dormancy strength in Arabidopsis thaliana that is reported to be expressed exclusively in seeds. DOG1 is extensively regulated, with an antisense transcript (asDOG1) suppressing its expression in seeds. Here, we show that asDOG1 shows high levels in mature plants where it suppresses DOG1 expression under standard growth conditions. Suppression is released by shutting down antisense transcription, which is induced by the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) and drought. Loss of asDOG1 results in constitutive high-level DOG1 expression, conferring increased drought tolerance, while inactivation of DOG1 causes enhanced drought sensitivity. The unexpected role of DOG1 in environmental adaptation of mature plants is separate from its function in seed dormancy regulation. The requirement of asDOG1 to respond to ABA and drought demonstrates that antisense transcription is important for sensing and responding to environmental changes in plants.
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