Functional analysis of genes associated with flower senscence.
Chen J.C., Jiang C.Z., Clark D., Reid M.S.
5th International Postharvest Symposium . Volume of Abstract . Verona, Italy 6-11 June 2004. page 35
2004
บทคัดย่อ
Functional analysis of genes associated with flower senscence.
In the past decade researchers have reported increasingly comprehensive cDNA libraries of genes associated with floral senescence in ethylene-dependent and ethylene-independent floral crops, including daylily, carnation, iris, daffodil and petunia.Analysis of the function of these genes in flower senescence has depended on the slow process of stable transformation and regeneration of the plants to up- or down- regulate individual target genes.We have adopted an alternative strategy, using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) to evaluate the effects on flower senescence of silencing genes whose up-regulation is associated with flower senescence.Using petunia as our test organism, we infect with tandem constructs where the RNA2 of tobacco rattle virus (TRV) is modified by insertion of chalcone synthase and the target gene.Where virus infection occurs, the plant’s silencing mechanism also silences chalcone synthase (a key enzyme in anthocyanin biosynthesis), resulting in white sectors on the otherwise purple flowers.The effect of the test gene on flower senescence can be determined by comparing the pattern of senescence in the purple and white sectors in individual flowers.Since it is likely that the senescence process is coordinated through control elements such as transcription factors, kinases, and DNA binding factors our studies have focused on transcription factors identified in a large EST database housed at the University of Florida.The results of VIGS silencing ofselected transcription factors on flower senescence will be reported.