Arabidopsis 2010: Identification of the Function of a Family of Putative Glycosyltransferases

该项目的目标是确定编码六个结构相关蛋白家族的基因的生物学功能，这些蛋白被称为纤维素合成酶样蛋白(CSL)。根据与纤维素合成酶的序列相似性，推测CSL基因编码的过程糖基转移酶可以催化一些非纤维素聚合物的合成，这些聚合物包括植物细胞壁和其他胞外多糖，如花柱分泌物和粘液，或者阿拉伯半乳糖蛋白上的糖基残基。由于植物细胞壁和胞外多糖是地球上生物量的主要成分，了解与这些化合物合成相关的酶和基因可能有助于植物生物资源的生产和利用。利用最近完成的拟南芥全基因组序列，指导对这些基因的遗传分析。大多数CSL基因将通过插入突变而失活。此外，通过产生增加或减少CSL基因的mRNA积累的转基因植株，CSL基因的表达将被改变。将分析突变和转基因事件对植物生长发育和植物多糖组成的影响，以便将每个CSL基因与特定的生物学作用和已知催化活性的酶联系起来。在这个项目中要分析的基因的登录号列表可以在http://www.arabidopsis.org/info/2010_projects/index.html.上找到。有关基因家族的信息可在http://cellwall.stanford.edu/cesa/index.shtml.上找到。

The goal of this project is to determine the biological function of genes which encode six families of structurally related proteins, called the cellulose synthase like (CSL) proteins. Based on the sequence similarity to cellulose synthase, it is hypothesized that the CSL genes encode processive glycosyltransferases that may catalyze the synthesis of some of the non-cellulosic polymers that comprise plant cell walls and other exopolysaccharides such as stylar secretions and mucilage, or the glycosyl residues on arabinogalactan proteins Because plant cell walls and exopolysaccharides are the dominant component of biomass on earth, knowledge of the enzymes and genes associated with the synthesis of these compounds may facilitate methods for the production and utilization of plant biomass.The technical approach that will be used to determine the function of the CSL genes exploits the recently completed full genome sequence of Arabidopsis to facilitate directed genetic analysis of the genes. Most of the CSL genes will be inactivated by insertional mutagenesis. In addition, the expression of the CSL genes will be altered by producing transgenic plants that have increased or decreased accumulation of mRNA for the CSL genes. The effects of the mutations and transgenic events on the growth and development of the plants, and on plant polysaccharide composition will be analyzed in order to associate each CSL gene with a specific biological role and enzyme of known catalytic activity. A list of the accession numbers of the genes to be analyzed during this project can be found at http://www.arabidopsis.org/info/2010_projects/index.html. Information about the gene families can be found at http://cellwall.stanford.edu/cesa/index.shtml.