Poster: Education

Abs # 34: Changes in Gene Expression at the Bolting Transition of Arabidopsis thaliana

Presenter:	Patrick, Marquis M, imhotepmp@hotmail.com
Authors	Patrick, Marquis M (A)   Guadamuz, Carlos A (A)   Voda, Mircea  (A)   de Haro, Sergio  (A)   Morquecho, Ivonne  (A)   Vellanoweth Ph.D, Dr. Robert L (A)
Affiliations:	(A): California State University, Los Angeles

Senescence is considerably delayed by physical removal of the floral bolts and immediately initiated as bolts are allowed to re-grow in Arabidopsis thaliana (Columbia ecotype). This suggests that there are signals that are released during the onset of bolting that start a cascade of events leading to senescence. In order to identify and isolate genes that change in their expression at the bolting transition, we isolated mRNA from pre-bolt and bolt stages, and subjected them to both differential display and microarray analysis. From differential display we isolated and amplified ten genes, including Photosystem II psbM protein, Glycine rich RNA binding protein, D1 protein of photosystem II, and cytochrome f. The microarray analysis revealed 60 genes that significantly changed in expression, including a heat shock transcription factor-like protein, and a senescence-associated protein. The change in expression of some of the genes were confirmed by RT-PCR. Transcription factors that regulate the bolting transition-specific genes were identified via cis-regulatory sequence pattern analysis and subsequent gel shift assay analysis.