Elucidation of the Regulatory Pathway of Ovule Morphogenesis

9507157 Gasser高等植物的胚珠在植物繁殖中起着核心作用。此外，由于胚珠是种子的前体，胚珠发育是作物生产力的关键组成部分。胚珠发育包括所有多细胞生物的典型发育过程，可以作为研究所有生物形态发生和组织分化的基本机制的模型。Gasser博士将使用拟南芥作为模式生物来阐明调节胚珠发育的遗传途径。该分析的主要工具将是一组在调节这一过程的基因中具有缺陷的突变体。他已经分离出5个在胚珠发育中具有特定病变的突变体，并将通过正在进行的突变体筛选继续增加这一组突变体。他将确定这些突变的特定表型效应，并将通过上位分析表征它们的相互作用。这些研究的结果将有助于确定胚珠形态发生的关键调控步骤，并将使胚珠发育调控途径模型的构建成为可能。本研究的完成将极大地促进我们对高等植物生殖发育调控的认识，并对适用于所有生物的形态发生和组织发生的遗传控制有一个大致的了解。＊＊＊

9507157 Gasser The ovules of higher plants play a central role in plant reproduction. In addition, because ovules are the precursors to seeds, ovule development is a critical component of crop productivity. Ovule development includes processes which typify development in all multicellular organisms and can be used as a model for studying fundamental mechanisms regulating morphogenesis and tissue differentiation in all organisms. Dr. Gasser will use Arabidopsis thaliana as a model organism for elucidation of the genetic pathway regulating ovule development. The primary tool in this analysis will be a set of mutants with defects in genes which regulate this process. He has already isolated five such mutants with specific lesions in ovule development and will continue to add to this set through ongoing mutant screens. He will determine the specific phenotypic effects of these mutations and will characterize their interactions through epistatic analyses. The results of these studies will allow identification of critical regulatory steps in ovule morphogenesis and will enable the construction of models of the regulatory pathway governing ovule development. Completion of the proposed research will significantly contribute to our knowledge of regulation of reproductive development in higher plants and to a general understanding of genetic control of morphogenesis and histogenesis that can be applicable to all organisms. ***