Analysis of biological function, specificity and interactions of cellulose synthases

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The family of cellulose synthases (CesA) genes is composed of ten members in Arabidopsis. Mutants in the five more highly expressed CesA genes have been identified and recently cloned, based on strong and characteristic cell wall / cell expansion phenotypes, and hence some degree of biological function has been assigned to those genes. In contrast, no biological function or specific expression data are available for the other five, more lowly expressed, family members, yet. This could suggest that they either encode tissue-specific isoforms or are expressed only during specific stages of development or under special circumstances, and corresponding mutants might display no or just subtle phenotypes under normal conditions. The goals of this proposal are to generate the missing information for these additional genes - by studying the morphology and development of the corresponding T-DNA insertion mutants, as well as their polysaccharide composition, and -by analyzing the expression pattern and level of the corresponding CesA transcripts and -proteins in a large range of conditions. Another goal is to examine which of the CesA isoforms are required in parallel in a cellulose-synthesizing complex in a specific cell, and what other interacting (regulatory?) proteins are required in order to allow for normal cellulose production.