Genetics of Agamous Action in Arabidopsis

描述（由申请人提供）：发育遗传学中两个关键的未解决的问题是，同源选择基因如何导致特定器官的指定？以及这些调节因子如何导致特定细胞类型的出现？拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）同源选择基因在花发育过程中起着器官身份规范的作用，并受到精确的时空调控。它们将在具有基因型的植物中被激活，这些基因将激活单一器官类型，并且下游激活和抑制基因的整个阵列将使用定制设计的微阵列来确定。染色质免疫沉淀和生物信息学实验将为确定这些转录因子的活性结合位点提供替代方法。结果将是一个详细的机制描述和因果模型，每个步骤和每个基因参与器官类型规范的初始阶段，每个主要调控基因参与花的空间格局形成。这反过来将提供关于植物和动物共有的一个关键发育过程的基本信息，这个过程一旦改变，就会导致发育缺陷。它还将为开始对复杂发育过程进行完整的基因回路分析提供必要的信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Two critical unanswered questions in developmental genetics are, how do homeotic selector genes lead to specification of specific organs?, and how do such regulators lead to appearance of specific cell types? The homeotic selector genes of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, which function in the specification of organ identity during flower development, have been put under precise spatial and temporal control. They will be activated in plants with genotypes that dictate that the genes will be activating a single organ type, and the entire array of downstream activated and repressed genes will be determined using custom-designed microarrays. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and bioinformatic experiments will provide alternative methods for determining the active binding sites of these transcription factors. The result will be a detailed mechanistic description and causal model for each step and each gene involved in the initial stages of organ type specification, by each of the master regulatory genes engaged in spatial pattern formation in flowers. This in turn will provide fundamental information on a critical process in development that is shared by plants and animals, that when altered, leads to developmental defects. It will also give necessary information for beginning a complete gene circuit analysis of a complex developmental process.