OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE

This Article Free via Open Access: OA OA Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data OA All Versions of this Article: 148/4/1964    most recent pp.108.128108v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Day, R. C. Articles by Macknight, R. C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Day, R. C. Articles by Macknight, R. C. Agricola Articles by Day, R. C. Articles by Macknight, R. C.

GENETICS, GENOMICS, AND MOLECULAR EVOLUTION

Transcriptome Analysis of Proliferating Arabidopsis Endosperm Reveals Biological Implications for the Control of Syncytial Division, Cytokinin Signaling, and Gene Expression Regulation^[C],[W],[OA]

Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand (R.C.D., R.P.H., R.C.M.); and Institute of Molecular BioSciences, Massey University, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand (B.A.A.)

During the early stages of seed development, Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) endosperm is syncytial and proliferates rapidly through repeated rounds of mitosis without cytokinesis. This stage of endosperm development is important in determining final seed size and is a model for studying aspects of cellular and molecular biology, such as the cell cycle and genomic imprinting. However, the small size of the Arabidopsis seed makes high-throughput molecular analysis of the early endosperm technically difficult. Laser capture microdissection enabled high-resolution transcript analysis of the syncytial stage of Arabidopsis endosperm development at 4 d after pollination. Analysis of Gene Ontology representation revealed a developmental program dominated by the expression of genes associated with cell cycle, DNA processing, chromatin assembly, protein synthesis, cytoskeleton- and microtubule-related processes, and cell/organelle biogenesis and organization. Analysis of core cell cycle genes implicates particular gene family members as playing important roles in controlling syncytial cell division. Hormone marker analysis indicates predominance for cytokinin signaling during early endosperm development. Comparisons with publicly available microarray data revealed that approximately 800 putative early seed-specific genes were preferentially expressed in the endosperm. Early seed expression was confirmed for 71 genes using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, with 27 transcription factors being confirmed as early seed specific. Promoter-reporter lines confirmed endosperm-preferred expression at 4 d after pollination for five transcription factors, which validates the approach and suggests important roles for these genes during early endosperm development. In summary, the data generated provide a useful resource providing novel insight into early seed development and identify new target genes for further characterization.

^[C] Some figures in this article are displayed in color online but in black and white in the print edition.

^[W] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

^[OA] Open Access articles can be viewed online without a subscription.

www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.108.128108

^* Corresponding author; e-mail richard.macknight{at}otago.ac.nz.

Received August 19, 2008; accepted October 6, 2008; published October 15, 2008.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Gehring, K. L. Bubb, and S. Henikoff Extensive Demethylation of Repetitive Elements During Seed Development Underlies Gene Imprinting Science, June 12, 2009; 324(5933): 1447 - 1451. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]