Axillary meristem development in Arabidopsis

发育生物学的目的之一是了解植物形态多样化的机制。我们正在使用一组五晚开花拟南芥生态型，形成自然选择的变异形态，营养结构继续启动，即使在植物的生殖发育。这种形态变化影响了植物的生活史特征，并将植物的寿命从数月延长到数年。我们以前建立了指定这种形态的基因之间的关键遗传相互作用。在下一步中，我们的目标是确定下游目标和关键效应参与规范的形态，利用基因芯片和平铺阵列。鉴定和表征自然选择所青睐的特定等位基因将使我们能够深入了解进化机制，并将其用于环境友好的植物生物技术。我们以前的工作确定了新的花阻遏物，其作用是延迟植物生殖发育的开始。我们的数据表明，其余的生态型的分析可能会发现额外的花抑制因子。除了对植物生殖发育调控的基本理解做出贡献外，该研究项目还为利用自然发生的基因调控相互作用进行以环境为重点的作物生物技术提供了工具。我们发现的遗传调控相互作用对于生产最大生物量和包含转基因至关重要，这是进一步发展植物作为生物反应器所必需的。

One of the aims of developmental biology is to understand the mechanisms underlying the diversification of plant forms. We are using a set of five late-flowering Arabidopsis ecotypes that form naturally selected variant morphology in which vegetative structures continue to initiate even during the plant's reproductive development. This morphological change impacts the life history traits and expends the plant life span from months to years. We previously established key genetic interactions between genes that specify this morphology. In the next step, our aim is to identify downstream targets and key effectors involved in specification of such morphology by taking advantage of GeneChip and tiling arrays. Identification and characterization of specific alleles that have been favored by natural selection would allow us to gain an insight into mechanisms of evolution and to exploit them for environmentally friendly plant biotechnology. Our previous work identified novel floral repressor that acts to delay the onset of reproductive development in plants. Our data suggest that the analysis of remainder of ecotypes may identify additional floral repressors. In addition to contribution to the fundamental understanding of regulation of plant reproductive development, this research project provides tools for the environmentally focused biotechnology of crops using naturally occurring gene regulatory interactions. Our discovered genetic regulatory interactions are crucial for production of maximum biomass, and containment of a transgene, which is required for further development of plants as bioreactors.