Axillary meristem development in Arabidopsis

发育生物学的目标之一是了解植物形态多样化的潜在机制。我们使用了一组5个开花晚的拟南芥生态型，形成自然选择的变异形态，其中营养结构甚至在植物的生殖发育期间继续启动。这种形态变化影响了植物的生活史特征，延长了植物的寿命，从几个月到几年不等。我们之前在指定这种形态的基因之间建立了关键的遗传相互作用。下一步，我们的目标是通过利用基因芯片和平铺阵列来确定下游目标和涉及这种形态规范的关键效应物。鉴定和鉴定受自然选择青睐的特定等位基因将使我们能够深入了解进化机制，并利用它们进行环境友好型植物生物技术。我们之前的工作发现了一种新的花抑制因子，它可以延迟植物生殖发育的开始。我们的数据表明，对其余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，本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。我们发现的基因调控相互作用对于产生最大生物量和遏制转基因至关重要，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.