Poster: Global change

Abs # 26: Profiling Gene Expression in Seed Germination of Brassica napus Using Arabidopsis cDNA Microarray

Presenter:	Wu, Xianzhong , xianzhong.wu@nrc.ca
Authors	Wu, Xianzhong  (A)   Li, Fengling  (A)   Cutler, Adrian  (A)   Tsang, Ed  (A)
Affiliations:	(A): Plant Biotechnology Institute, National Research Council Canada

Seed germination is a complex process resulting from a network of many coordinated cellular and metabolic events. Although the mechanism of seed germination in a variety of plant species have been studied, the regulatory and metabolic network in germination remain poorly understood. To better understand seed germination at the molecular level, we began profiling gene expression during seed germination using Brassica napus. Total RNAs were extracted from imbibed seeds of B.napus incubated at various time intervals during seed germination. Analyses of gene expression at various time intervals were conducted on microarray slides containing 12K Arabidopsis cDNAs. As expected, a large number of genes were involved in the germination process, and the number of up-regulated and down-regulated genes detected from the microarray varied significantly at various time intervals. Currently, our focus is on a small group of genes that showed 2 to 5 fold changes as indicated by Cy5 and Cy3 dye ratio. From the up-regulated genes, 10-12 genes were selected for further analysis. At present, both RT-PCR and Northern blotting are being used to confirm data obtained from the microarrays.