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BI410 Plant Developmental Biology

This document discusses plant developmental biology and Arabidopsis thaliana as a model organism. It covers topics such as meristems, patterns of leaf placement, classical and reverse genetics approaches, and plant embryogenesis versus post-embryonic development driven by meristems. The three main points made are: 1) plant development differs from animals in being highly post-embryonic and driven by meristems, 2) A. thaliana is a excellent model organism for plant development due to its small size, short generation time, and fully sequenced genome, and 3) genetic approaches like mutagenesis are used to study gene function in development.

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98 views41 pages

BI410 Plant Developmental Biology

This document discusses plant developmental biology and Arabidopsis thaliana as a model organism. It covers topics such as meristems, patterns of leaf placement, classical and reverse genetics approaches, and plant embryogenesis versus post-embryonic development driven by meristems. The three main points made are: 1) plant development differs from animals in being highly post-embryonic and driven by meristems, 2) A. thaliana is a excellent model organism for plant development due to its small size, short generation time, and fully sequenced genome, and 3) genetic approaches like mutagenesis are used to study gene function in development.

Uploaded by

Laisla Cagliari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BI410 Plant Developmental

Biology
Course Assessment
•  20% Continual assessment (Questionnaires)
–  2 Questionnaires
•  9am Thursday 3rd March
•  9am Thursday 21st April

•  80% Written end of term exam


BI410 Plant Developmental
Biology
•  Molecular genetic approach to understanding
development
•  Plant embryogenesis – establishing polarity
•  Flower development – establishing pattern

Book: Plant Physiology and Development (6th Edition)


(Taiz et al.,)
Papers – lots of them.
What is Development?
•  Development is the process that
builds the organism.
•  Sum of all the events during the life
of a plant or animal.
•  These events gives it the capacity
to obtain food, to reproduce, to
exploit the opportunities and deal
with the hazards of its environment.
•  Throughout their life cycle plants
continually respond to signals that
they use to alter their physiology,
morphology, and development.
Development
•  Refers to a series of changes in the
state of the cell, tissue, organ, or
organism
•  Underlying process that gives rise to the
structure and function of living
organisms
•  Developmental genetics aimed at
understanding how gene expression
controls this process
5
Model organisms
Model organisms
•  Fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster
–  Advanced techniques for generating and analyzing
mutants
–  Large enough for easy study but small enough to
determine where genes are expressed
•  Nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans
–  Simplicity – only about a thousand somatic cells
–  Pattern of cell division and fate of each cell known

7
•  House mouse Mus musculus
•  Zebrafish Brachydanio rerio
•  Thale cress Arabidopsis thaliana
–  Wild mustard family
–  Short generation time, small genome

8
What makes a good model
organism?
•  History of genetic analysis - facilitates mapping and
ultimately cloning of genes.
•  Relatively short life cycle.
•  Accessible size - to permit screening of large numbers of
individuals for mutant phenotypes.
•  A small genome - comprehensive physical and sequence
analysis possible.
•  Can be easily transformed - models for development
testable.
•  Lots of resources available to the communal research
community.
Arabidopsis as a model organism
for plant development
•  Arabidopsis thaliana
is a common weed in
Europe (thale cress).
•  Arabidopsis is small -
only 5 inches in height
at maturity
Arabidopsis as a model organism
for plant development
•  Large numbers of
plants can be grown in
close quarters without
requirement for fields
of land.
A.thaliana can be transformed and grown on selective
medium. Individuals are isolated and allowed to grow
leaves and roots before transferring to soil.
Arabidopsis as a model organism
for plant development
•  Seed-to-seed generation in
as little as 6-8 weeks.
•  Subject to classical
genetics for quite some
time.
•  Self-fertilizing
•  Prodigious seed producer -
10,000 seed/plant.
•  Easy to mutagenise
Arabidopsis as a model organism
for plant development
•  Arabidopsis genome has
been completely
sequenced.
•  Genome size - 7 X 107 bp.
•  Probably has the same
number of genes as most
plants.
•  Most streamlined in
genome organization
•  Excellent model system
for plant genetics.
Arabidopsis thaliana
genome
•  Contains 25,498 genes from
11,000 families
•  Cross-phylum matches:
–  Vertebrates 12%
–  Bacteria / Archaea 10%
–  Fungi 8%
•  60% ESTs have no match in
non-plant databases
•  Evolution involved whole
genome duplication followed
by subsequent gene loss and
extensive local gene
duplications
The Arabidopsis Information Resource:
www.arabidopsis.org

Curation at TAIR
Gene structure annotations
Gene / protein functional annotations
Partner with the PMN: Metabolic pathway curation

External resource integration at TAIR


Data sets
Biological materials
Other databases
External resource integration at TAIR
•  Data sets (viewable within TAIR)

–  Arabidopsis EST sequences


–  Other plant EST sequences (selected dicots and monocots)
–  Arabidopsis and Brassica cDNAs
–  non-coding RNAs
–  Alternative gene predictions
–  Transcript expression data
–  Peptide expression data
–  Epigenetic features
–  Ecotype-specific polymorphisms
–  Promoter elements
–  Post-translational modifications
–  Interaction partners
–  Orthologs
–  Publications

•  Biological materials (provided by Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center-ABRC)


–  Seed stocks
–  DNA resources
Arabidopsis research can be
successfully applied to “real plants”

•  Over-expression of the hardy gene from Arabidopsis can improve water use
efficiency in rice (Karaba 2007)

•  Studies on a sodium transporter (HKT1) in Arabidopsis helped to identify a


durum wheat homolog. It has been introgressed into bread wheat lines and
appears to improve their yield on saline soils (Hwang 2006; Byrt 2007, et al)
Molecular genetic approach
Developmental system

Model organism

Mutants
Mutagens:
Chemical e.g. EMS
Clone and characterize mutated gene Ionizing radiation - X-rays
T-DNA or transposon insertions

Model for gene function

Test model
Mutagenesis
Mutagens:
Chemical e.g. EMS
Ionizing radiation - X-rays
T-DNA or transposon insertions
Genetic Approaches

•  Forward genetic screens


use mutagens (chemicals
like EMS or irradiation) to
randomly introduce
genetic variability. Plants
are screened for
phenotypes of interest and
the mutated gene
identified. Thus, phenotype
to gene
Alonso & Ecker (2006) Nature Reviews Genetics 7:524-536
Genetic Approaches
•  Reverse genetics uses
collections of sequenced
insertion lines (e.g. at
SIGnAL), in which
bacterial or transposon
DNA interrupts the wild-
type gene structure.
Mutant lines with
insertions in a gene of
interest can be obtained
from stock centers
(NASC, ABRC) and
analyzed for altered
phenotypes. Thus, gene to
phenotype.
Classical v’s Reverse Genetics
•  Classical
–  Biological process
–  Identify mutants
–  Clone the gene
–  Ascribe function
Classical vs Reverse Genetics
•  Classical
•  Reverse
–  Gene in hand
–  Create mutants
–  Screen for targeted mutations (e.g. by PCR)
–  Determine mutant phenotype
–  Ascribe function
Overview of a flowering plant
structure
•  Three basic organs: roots,
stems and leaves.
•  Organized into a root
system and a shoot system
(consists of stems and
leaves).
Most animal development occurs
during embryogenesis

Plant development differs from animal


development because plants possess meristems.
Plant embryogenesis establishes a
rudimentary plant axis
Most plant development is post-
embryonic
The body of the plant is generated
post-embryonically as a result of
the activity of meristems

Shoot apical meristem


Root apical meristem
Meristems
•  Provide new undifferentiated cells from
which to build the plant body
•  Establish some basic features of the plant’s
geometry
•  Example - leaves form on the flanks of the
meristem as small mounds of cells, leaf
primordia. Leaf arrangement is determined
by where and when new primordia arise.
Scanning electron micrograph of plant shoot apex
Meristems and leaf placement
•  Cell division at specific
locations on the flank of the
meristem marks the initiation
of:
–  a leaf primordium (or primordia)
–  lateral meristem primordia
–  and sub-adjacent stem tissue
(internode)
Plant development is highly repetitive

•  Especially true of vegetative


shoot apical meristem.
•  The meristem builds the plant
in a sequence of repetitive
modules called phytomers.
•  Each phytomer is a unit of
organs consisting of:
–  The node - with one or more leaves
–  The axillary meristem (bud) - in axil
of leaf or leaves
–  The internode below the leaf
Rules for module
production

plastochron

Most plants have one of three different phytomeric units


based on patterns of organ placement.
Patterns of leaf placement - phyllotaxy
Decussate phyllotaxy
p

Spiral
phyllotaxy
Developmental characteristics
–  Animals •  Plants
–  Determinate growth –  Indeterminate growth
–  Cell fate not easily directed –  Cell fate easily directed
–  No defined group of cells
–  Germ cell fate established
destined to be the germ
very early in development cells
–  Germ-cells eventually –  Meiosis takes place in the
undergo meiosis to form sporophyte - the haploid
gametes products of meiosis - spores
–  Limited function of haploid - develop into distinct
cells gamete-producing
organisms called
gametophytes.
–  Haploid cells perform more
functions than in animals
LO - to understand:
•  What makes a good model organism?
•  The usefulness of forward genetic and
reverse genetic approaches in understanding
development.
•  Meristems and their importance in plant
development.
Reading:
Plant Physiology & Development - (Taiz et. al.)
•  Chapter 2 – tools for studying gene function
Biology – (Brooker et al., 2nd Edition)
•  Chapter 19 Developmental Genetics

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