Developmental and Molecular Genetics of Embryogenesis in Arabidopsis

Meinke博士已经分离出200多个拟南芥的胚胎突变体 发育异常的拟南芥。他 在胚胎发育过程中， 并分析了以下产生的T-DNA插入突变体 种子转化拟议的研究将继续进行 标记的胚胎突变体的分子分析和检查 几个没有标记的突变体有着特别不寻常的表型 分子分析将集中在四种突变体上， 侧翼序列已经恢复了仔细的分析 将仅限于具有有趣模式的突变基因， 表达、与已知基因的序列同源性或 可以从现有的cDNA文库中回收。Meinke博士 最近发现了一种新的同源异型突变体， 调节基因缺陷，其功能是激活广泛的 一系列胚胎特异性途径。变异胚胎是不正常的， 偶尔胎生，干燥不耐受，但可以是 在干燥之前在培养物中拯救。由此产生的幼苗 具有与突变子叶模型一致的表型 部分转化成了叶子， 基因的功能是保持叶子之间的区别， 子叶这种突变体没有标记，但值得详细说明 分析和Meinke博士建议在准备中绘制基因图谱 进一步鉴定这个有趣的突变体

Dr Meinke has isolated over 200 embryonic mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana with a wide range of developmental abnormalities. He has been mapping genes with essential functions during embryogenesis and an analyzing of T-DNA insertional mutants produced following seed transformation. The proposed research will continue a molecular analysis of tagged embryonic mutants and examine several untagged mutants with particularly unusual phenotypes. The molecular analysis will focus on four mutants in which flanking sequences have already been recovered. Detailed analysis will be limited to mutant genes with interesting patterns of expression, sequence homology to known genes, or transcripts that can be recovered from existing cDNA libraries. Dr. Meinke has recently identified a novel homeotic mutant that appears to be defective in a regulatory gene that functions to activate a wide range of embryo specific pathways. Mutant embryos are abnormal, occasionally viviparous, and desiccation intolerant, but can be rescued in culture prior to desiccation. The resulting seedlings have a phenotype consistent with a model that mutant cotyledons are partially transformed into leaves, and that this regulatory gene functions to maintain the distinction between leaves and cotyledons. This mutant is not tagged, but merits detailed analysis and Dr. Meinke proposes to map the gene in preparation to further characterization of this interesting mutant.