Working in collaboration with Dr. Colleen Doherty’s lab at North Carolina State University, Mimetics researchers have shown for the first time that warm nighttime temperatures disturb the circadian patterns of gene expression in rice plants, leading to depressed yields. This effort involved a careful study of time series transcriptional data from the entire rice genome. The work required an analysis of the ways in which these patterns were altered when the plants were exposed to warmer than average nighttime temperatures that relied on Mimetics’ advanced analytics. Developing and growing rice plants that provide high yields in spite of warmer nights is crucial as global climate change continues. The results are described in a paper that can be found at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/702183v1.

Mimetics is working with Dr. William Kraus and his group at the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute to develop new assays for characterizing human circadian patterns.

Mimetics is working with Dr. Ralph Dean, an expert on fungal diseases in crop plants, to identify early transcriptional responses to fungal infection.

Mimetics is working with Dr. Colleen Doherty, an expert on abiotic stress on a project to study the effects of heat stress due to climate change on rice plants and their productivity.