Genetic and molecular analysis of trichome and root hair development in Arabis alpina
Evolutionary Cell and Developmental Biology (Zoology)
Final Report Abstract
The regulation of trichome and root hair development is well studied in Arabidopsis thaliana. This project aimed to compare the underlying genetic network of trichome and root hair development between Arabidopsis an Arabis alpina. The two species have an evolutionary distance of 26 to 40 million years and are therefore related closely enough to identify orthologous genes but distant enough to expect regulatory differences. Towards this end we have performed systematic screens to identify trichome and root hair patterning mutants in A. alpina. We found a similar range of mutant phenotypes as in Arabidopsis. Selected mutants were chosen and genes known to regulate the respective process in Arabidopsis were sequenced to identify allele specific changes in the CDS leading to severe mutations in the proteins (STOP codons, splice site mutations). We found 23 relevant allele specific mutations among the 49 trichome mutants and 28 among the 46 root hair mutants. As expected our data suggest that most processes are regulated by the same set of genes in both species. We found, however, also few changes. In particular we noted different gene functions of redundantly acting genes in trichome patterning and of the homeobox transcription factor GLABRA2 in trichome differentiation. Taken together we provide an exhaustive functional comparison of trichome and root hair development between Arabidopsis thaliana and Arabis alpina.
Publications
- Analysis of TTG1 function in Arabis alpina. BMC Plant Biol 14, 16
Divikry Chopra, Heike Wolff, Johannes Span, Swen Schellmann, George Coupland, Maria C Albani, Andrea Schrader and Martin Hülskamp
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2229-14-16)
