Poster: Root biology

Abs # 704: Functional characterization of a leucine-rich-repeat receptor-like kinase using RNA interference

Presenter:	Liu, Xianan , xiananl@colostate.edu
Authors	Liu, Xianan  (A)   Bush, Daniel R (A)
Affiliations:	(A): Dept. of Biology, Colorado State University

The leucine-rich-repeat (LRR) receptor-like kinase (RLK) gene family contains approximately 200 members in Arabidopsis. Several reported LRR-RLKs are involved in plant hormonal, pathogen response pathways, plant growth and development. A LRR-RLK gene, named Slow Root Elongation (SRE), was found to be root-specific expression and its expression was up-regulated by nitrate. RNAi mutants of SRE have shorter primary roots, reduced lateral root number, and shorter silques. Seed germination of the RNAi mutants was repressed in the media with high concentration of sorbitol and mannitol. The SRE RNAi transgenic plants do not response to Gibberellin. We suggest that SRE is an important gene required for root development, and it functions in plant response to hormones and/or environment stresses.