| Description: | We are interested in using microarray technology to identify genes that are specifically expressed in juvenile and adult leaves of Arabidopsis. Despite the many documented morphological and physiological differences between juvenile and adult phases of development in woody and herbaceous plants, only two molecular differences between these phases have been defined. Therefore, the genes identified in this experiment will not only allow us to characterize the process of phase change in Arabidopsis, but should provide important clues about the regulation of phase change in other species. It is not trivial to identify differences in the pattern of gene expression in juvenile and adult leaves by any method that involves extracting RNA from immature tissue. This is because in an immature shoot leaves at different positions not only have a different identity, but also represent different stages of leaf development. For example, a shoot harvested immediately after germination will have two or more immature juvenile leaves. A shoot harvested later will have several mature juvenile leaves, as well as a series of immature adult leaves in various stages of leaf development. Furthermore, it is difficult to compare juvenile and adult leaves at the same stage of development because these types of leaves grow to be different sizes. Thus, an immature 5 mm juvenile leaf is at a different developmental stage than an immature 5 mm adult leaf. We believe that the squint mutation provides a solution to this problem. Of all the phase change mutations we have isolated, squint has the most dramatic effect on leaf identity. All of the leaves produced by squint mutants resemble adult leaves in their size, shape and pattern of trichome production. Equal important for this study is the fact that squint does not affect the timing of the production of leaves 1 and 2. squint therefore provides a way to obtain leaves of the same developmental age, but with different developmental identities. We predict that genes that are differentially expressed in 7-day old squint and wild type seedlings will very likely represent genes that are differentially expressed in juvenile and adult leaves. This hypothesis will be tested by performing a detailed analysis of the expression patterns of the genes identified in this experiment in both wild type plants, and in mutants that affect the process of phase change. |
NASCArrays Information at The BAR
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