Poster: Genomics Resources

Abs # 941: Comprehensive tissue-specific transactivation to study gene function in Arabidopsis

Presenter:	Jones, Alan M, alan_jones@unc.edu
Authors	Jones, Alan M (A)   Ullah, Hemayet  (A)   Chatterjee, Ani  (A)   Rao, Mulpuri  (B)   Boyes, Douglas  (B)   Davis, Keith  (B)
Affiliations:	(A): University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (B): Paradigm Genetics, Inc

Transactivation of latent transgenes is a powerful tool that can be applied to the study of gene function in plants. In this approach, the transgene to be expressed (target) is under the control of a minimal promoter linked to cis-acting upstream activator sequences (UAS). Activation of the target transgene is provided by a synthetic transcription factor (driver) that specifically binds the UAS elements in the target gene promoter. Previous studies using this technology in plants have relied on constitutive or chemical-inducible promoters to control driver transgene expression. We have expanded the utility of the transactivation system by developing a collection of transgenic driver lines that can be used to control tissue- and developmental-stage-specific expression of target transgenes containing Gal4-UAS elements. We have applied tissue-specific transactivation to the analysis of ABP1, a gene required for embryogenesis. Restriction of ABP1 antisense expression to post-embryonic roots revealed a role for ABP1 in root elongation. In addition, the pleiotropic phenotype of the null mutant of agb1 was simplified by tissue-specific antisense-suppression which provided a means to uncouple deleterious traits from agronomically-important ones. Thus, tissue-specific transactivation is an effective tool for analyzing the function of essential genes and for dissecting complex pleiotropic phenotypes caused by constitutive ectopic expression.