Transactivation of BARNASE under the AtLTP1 promoter affects the basal pole of the embryo and shoot development of the adult plant in Arabidopsis

Summary Genetically controlled expression of a toxin provides a tool to remove a specific structure and consequently study its role during a developmental process. The availability of many tissue‐specific promoters is a good argument for the development of such a strategy in plants. We have develope...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology 2001-12, Vol.28 (5), p.503-515
Main Authors:	Baroux, Célia, Blanvillain, Robert, Moore, Ian R., Gallois, Patrick
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Arabidopsis - genetics Arabidopsis - growth & development Arabidopsis Proteins Arabidopsis thaliana AtLTP1 gene Bacterial Proteins BARNASE Base Sequence Biological and medical sciences DNA Primers embryo patterning epidermis Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Plant growth. Development of the storage organs Plant physiology and development Plant Proteins - genetics Promoter Regions, Genetic Ribonucleases - genetics Seeds - growth & development transactivation system Transcriptional Activation Vegetative apparatus, growth and morphogenesis. Senescence
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Summary Genetically controlled expression of a toxin provides a tool to remove a specific structure and consequently study its role during a developmental process. The availability of many tissue‐specific promoters is a good argument for the development of such a strategy in plants. We have developed a conditional system for targeted toxin expression and demonstrated its use for generating embryo phenotypes that can bring valuable information about signalling during embryogenesis. The BARNASE gene was expressed in the Arabidopsis embryo under the control of two promoters, one from the cyclin AtCYCB1 gene and one from the AtLTP1 gene (LipidTransferProtein 1). One‐hundred percent seed abortion was obtained with the cyclin promoter. Surprisingly however, the embryos displayed a range of lethal phenotypes instead of a single arrested stage as expected from this promoter. We also show that BARNASE expression under the control of the AtLTP1 promoter affects the basal pole of the globular embryo. Together with reporter expression studies, this result suggests a role of the epidermis in controlling the development of the lower tier of the embryo. This defect was not embryo‐lethal and we show that the seedlings displayed a severe shoot phenotype correlated to epidermal defects. Therefore, the epidermis does not play an active role during organogenesis in seedlings but is important for the postgermination development of a viable plant.
ISSN:	0960-7412 1365-313X