Identification of transcription-factor genes expressed in the Arabidopsis female gametophyte

BMC Plant Biology

Research Article

Gary N Drews¹  Jayson A Punwani²  Megan I Skaggs³  Karen S Schumaker³  Dongfang Wang³  Ramin Yadegari³  David J Hearn⁴  Il-Ho Kang⁵  Changqing Zhang⁶ 

[1] Department of Biology, University of Utah, 84112-0840, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA;Department of Biology, University of Utah, 84112-0840, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA;Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599-3280, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA;School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, 85721-0036, Tucson, Arizona, USA;School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, 85721-0036, Tucson, Arizona, USA;Department of Biological Sciences, Towson University, 21252-0001, Towson, Maryland, USA;School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, 85721-0036, Tucson, Arizona, USA;Department of Biology, University of Utah, 84112-0840, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA;Department of Horticulture, Iowa State University, 50011-1100, Ames, Iowa, USA;School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, 85721-0036, Tucson, Arizona, USA;The Section of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Texas at Austin, 78712-0159, Austin, Texas, USA;

关键词: Central Cell;    Female Gametophyte;    Antipodal Cell;    Synergid Cell;    Promoter Fusion;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2229-10-110

 received in 2009-12-11, accepted in 2010-06-16,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIn flowering plants, the female gametophyte is typically a seven-celled structure with four cell types: the egg cell, the central cell, the synergid cells, and the antipodal cells. These cells perform essential functions required for double fertilization and early seed development. Differentiation of these distinct cell types likely involves coordinated changes in gene expression regulated by transcription factors. Therefore, understanding female gametophyte cell differentiation and function will require dissection of the gene regulatory networks operating in each of the cell types. These efforts have been hampered because few transcription factor genes expressed in the female gametophyte have been identified. To identify such genes, we undertook a large-scale differential expression screen followed by promoter-fusion analysis to detect transcription-factor genes transcribed in the Arabidopsis female gametophyte.ResultsUsing quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR, we analyzed 1,482 Arabidopsis transcription-factor genes and identified 26 genes exhibiting reduced mRNA levels in determinate infertile 1 mutant ovaries, which lack female gametophytes, relative to ovaries containing female gametophytes. Spatial patterns of gene transcription within the mature female gametophyte were identified for 17 transcription-factor genes using promoter-fusion analysis. Of these, ten genes were predominantly expressed in a single cell type of the female gametophyte including the egg cell, central cell and the antipodal cells whereas the remaining seven genes were expressed in two or more cell types. After fertilization, 12 genes were transcriptionally active in the developing embryo and/or endosperm.ConclusionsWe have shown that our quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR differential-expression screen is sufficiently sensitive to detect transcription-factor genes transcribed in the female gametophyte. Most of the genes identified in this study have not been reported previously as being expressed in the female gametophyte. Therefore, they might represent novel regulators and provide entry points for reverse genetic and molecular approaches to uncover the gene regulatory networks underlying female gametophyte development.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Wang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.