Project description:Maintenance of the root-meristem is determined by polar auxin transport (PAT) and asymmetric cell division (ACD). We find that flavonoids scutellarin and scutellarein, which both have 6-hydroxyl group that differs in its structure from all known-flavonoid PAT inhibitors, promote PAT and ACD in Arabidopsis thaliana root tip, and increase root length. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression under scutellarin and mock (DMSO) treatment and identified distinct classes of genes regulated by scutellarin.
Project description:We sequenced cDNA synthesized from mRNA from 3 time points of a time course of Arabidopsis thaliana shoot apical meristems. Plants were grown two weeks in short days (time point +0LD) and then exposed to long days for 1 day (time point +1LD) and 3 days (time point +3LD). Meristem cells were collected using laser capture microdissection, to generate a meristem-specific time course of gene expression in the early stages of floral induction. The experiment was done in three biological replicates (called A, B, and C). Some repetitions of sequencing on a few samples (technical replicates) were also done
Project description:To optimize access to nitrogen under limiting conditions, root systems must continuously sense and respond to local or temporal fluctuations in nitrogen availability. In Arabidopsis thaliana and several other species, external N levels that induce only mild deficiency stimulate the emergence of lateral roots and especially the elongation of primary and lateral roots. However, the identity of the genes involved in this coordination remains still largely elusive. In order to identify novel genes and mechanisms underlying nitrogen-dependent root morphological changes, we investigated time-dependent changes in the root transcriptome of Arabidopsis thaliana plants grown under sufficient nitrogen or under conditions that induced mild nitrogen deficiency.
Project description:Photoperiod is a circannual signal measured by biological systems to align growth and reproduction with the seasons. To understand the effect of photoperiod of gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana in the absence of exogenous sugar under constant light intensity, we performed time course mRNA-seq analysis on 13-day old seedlings across three photoperiods with triplicates to identify photoperiod-regulated genes.
Project description:This model is from the article:
The influence of cytokinin-auxin cross-regulation on cell-fate determination in Arabidopsis thaliana root development
Muraro D, Byrne H, King J, Voss U, Kieber J, Bennett M.
J Theor Biol.2011 Aug 21;283(1):152-67.
PMID: 21640126,
Abstract:
Root growth and development in Arabidopsis thaliana are sustained by a specialised zone termed the meristem, which contains a population of dividing and differentiating cells that are functionally analogous to a stem cell niche in animals. The hormones auxin and cytokinin control meristem size antagonistically. Local accumulation of auxin promotes cell division and the initiation of a lateral root primordium. By contrast, high cytokinin concentrations disrupt the regular pattern of divisions that characterises lateral root development, and promote differentiation. The way in which the hormones interact is controlled by a genetic regulatory network. In this paper, we propose a deterministic mathematical model to describe this network and present model simulations that reproduce the experimentally observed effects of cytokinin on the expression of auxin regulated genes. We show how auxin response genes and auxin efflux transporters may be affected by the presence of cytokinin. We also analyse and compare the responses of the hormones auxin and cytokinin to changes in their supply with the responses obtained by genetic mutations of SHY2, which encodes a protein that plays a key role in balancing cytokinin and auxin regulation of meristem size. We show that although shy2 mutations can qualitatively reproduce the effect of varying auxin and cytokinin supply on their response genes, some elements of the network respond differently to changes in hormonal supply and to genetic mutations, implying a different, general response of the network. We conclude that an analysis based on the ratio between these two hormones may be misleading and that a mathematical model can serve as a useful tool for stimulate further experimental work by predicting the response of the network to changes in hormone levels and to other genetic mutations.