Poster: Reproductive development
Abs #
366: Functional Studies of Plantacyanin in Arabidopsis
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Presenter: |
Dong, Juan , dongj04@student.ucr.edu |
Authors | Dong, Juan (A) Lord, Elizabeth M. (A) | | Affiliations: |
(A): Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside
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Plantacyanin, a plant specific blue copper protein, is encoded by a single gene in the Arabidopsis genome. Even though the function of this protein is still unknown, it shows a high similarity (67%) to lily chemocyanin which is a component of the stigma secretions found to have pollen tube chemotropic activity in vitro (Kim et al., 2003). In addition, Arabidopsis plantacyanin was recently shown to be induced by low temperature (Kreps et al., 2002). We have identified the transcripts of this gene in Arabidopsis leaves, inflorescences, roots and stems by RT-PCR, with the highest level in the inflorescence. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants with the plantacyanin promoter region fused with the GUS gene demonstrate GUS expression in the stigma. A knockdown mutant was obtained, but no visible phenotypes were found under normal growth conditions. A RNAi transgenic plant in the knockdown mutant background is under construction for analyzing phenotypes including those under a variety of stress growth conditions. Transgenic plants with an over expression of plantacyanin have also been created for dissecting the function of this protein. Recombinant plantacyanin, expressed in E. coli cells, is being used in in vitro chemotropism assays with both lily and Arabidopsis pollen tubes, and for making antibodies to confirm the localization data obtained from promoter directed GUS expression.
References:
Kim S, Mollet JC, Dong J, Zhang K, Park SY, Lord EM (2003) Chemocyanin, a small basic protein from the lily stigma, induces pollen tube chemotropism. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 100(26): 16125-30.
Kreps JA, Wu Y, Chang HS, Zhu T, Wang X, and Harper JF. (2002) Transcriptome changes for Arabidopsis in response to salt, osmotic, and cold stress. Plant Physiology. 130: 2129 - 41.
