| Abstract Detail
Growth and Vegetative Development Shih, Ching-Fang [1], Lin, Jian-Shin [1], Yang, Chang-Hsien [1]. Characterization and Functional Analysis of NAC-like genes in regulating plant development in Arabidopsis thaliana. NAC-like genes, a class of plant-specific transcription factors, are characterized by having a highly conserved 150 amino acid NAC (for NAM, ATAF1, 2, and CUC2) domain at their N-terminal of proteins and have been thought to be involved in the regulation of diverse plant development processes. In this study, five Arabidopsis NAC-like genes AtNAC2, AtNACL3, AtNACL8, AtNACL10 and AtNACL15 in NAC2 subgroup were isolated and analyzed. These five genes showed similar expression pattern and their mRNA were detected early after germination. Their mRNA is also expressed in rosette leaves, cauline leaves, flowers and inflorescence. Further promoter assay by transforming constructs fusing the promoter of these genes with report GUS gene in Arabidopsis indicated that AtNACL8 and AtNACL15 were highly expressed in roots, cotyledon, shoot apical meristem and leaves where the AtNAC2, AtNACL3 and AtNACL10 were only weakly expressed. Interestingly, these five genes were all highly expressed in flowers. Further analysis indicated that their proteins were able to enter nucleus by fusing with GFP protein. Similar alteration of shoot formation such as the production of more than one lateral organ on the same position of floral axis was found in antisense or RNAi transgenic plants for these AtNACL genes. Other novel phenotypes were also observed in transgenic plants ectopically expressing these AtNACL genes. For example, the reduction of the fertility by producing short stamen and abnormal anther was observed in AtNACL3 or AtNAC2 antisense and AtNACL8 sense plants. To investigate the function of these AtNACL action, yeast two-hybrid screening was performed. Proteins that interacted with these AtNACL proteins were identified. Further analysis of these proteins should lead to a deeper understanding of the function for these NAC-like genes in regulating plant development.
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1 - National Chung Hsing University, Graduate Institute of Biotechnology, Taichung, 40227, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
Keywords:
meristem
NAC
transcription factor.
Presentation Type: Plant Biology Abstract
Session: P
Location: Exhibit Hall (Northeast, Southwest & Southeast)/Hilton
Date: Sunday, July 8th, 2007
Time: 8:00 AM
Number: P26048
Abstract ID:1569 |
