A Homeobox Sequence Regulating Compound Leaf Development in Tomato

叶片是植物的主要光合器官，对植物的生存至关重要。高等植物既可以有单叶，也可以有复叶，有时这两种叶型可以出现在关系密切的物种中。辛哈博士将对番茄的复合叶发育进行遗传和分子分析。她已经从番茄中克隆了一个含有cDNAT6的同源盒。T6克隆定位于两个显性的叶突变，小鼠耳朵和卷曲，这两个突变都会导致过量的叶片合成。原位杂交实验表明，T6基因在发育中的叶原基和叶片边缘中表达。在转基因番茄中过度表达该基因会导致叶片过度组合。T6转录本的减少会导致简单的无叶片叶片的形成。她根据现有的叶片突变提出了番茄复合叶片形态发生的假说。她将在老鼠耳朵、卷曲和其他现有的叶子突变之间进行基因杂交，以完善她的假设。这些方法应该会大大增加我们对复叶发育的理解。

Leaves are the primary photosynthetic organs on a plant and are critical to plant survival. Higher plants can have either simple or compound leaves and sometimes these two leaf types can occur in closely related species. Dr. Sinha will perform a gentic and molecular analysis of compound leaf development in tomato. She has cloned a homeobox containing cDNA, T6, from tomato. The T6 clone maps close to two dominant leaf mutations, Mouse ears and Curl, both of which lead to excess leaf compounding. In situ hybridization experiments indicate that the T6 gene is expressed in developing leaf primordia and developing blade margins. Over expression of the cDNA in transgenic tomato results in excessively compounded leaves. Reduction of the T6 transcript causes formation of simple bladeless leaves. She has formulated an hypothesis for compound leaf morphogenesis in tomato based on existing leaf mutations. She will perform genetic crosses between Mouse ears, Curl and other existing leaf mutations to refine her hypothesis. These approaches should substantially increase our understanding of compound leaf development.