Project description:Current understanding of floral developmental genetics comes primarily from the core-eudicot model Arabidopsis thaliana. Here we explore the floral transcriptome of the basal angiosperm, Nuphar advena (water lily), for insights into the ancestral developmental program of flowers. Several thousand Nuphar genes with significantly up-regulated floral expression are identified, including homologs of the well-known ABCE floral regulators. However, strong similarities in the expression profiles of different organ categories contradict the organ-specific spatial expression domains predicted by the ABCE model. The broadly overlapping transcriptional programs observed among floral organs in Nuphar are shared with the magnoliid Persea americana (avocado), supporting the inference that this is the ancestral condition in angiosperms. Consequently, the predominantly organ-specific transcriptional programs that characterize Arabidopsis flowers (and perhaps other eudicots) are derived. The transcriptional landscapes in Arabidopsis correlate with a shift toward morphologically distinct floral organs, including differentiated sepals and petals, and a perianth distinct from stamens and carpels. In contrast to most eudicots, perianth organs are weakly differentiated in Nuphar and Persea, with staminodial intermediates between stamens and perianth in Nuphar, and between stamens and carpels in Persea. Our findings suggest that genetic regulation of more spatially discrete transcriptional programs underlies the evolution of floral morphology.
Project description:Current understanding of floral developmental genetics comes primarily from the core-eudicot model Arabidopsis thaliana. Here we explore the floral transcriptome of the basal angiosperm, Nuphar advena (water lily), for insights into the ancestral developmental program of flowers. Several thousand Nuphar genes with significantly up-regulated floral expression are identified, including homologs of the well-known ABCE floral regulators. However, strong similarities in the expression profiles of different organ categories contradict the organ-specific spatial expression domains predicted by the ABCE model. The broadly overlapping transcriptional programs observed among floral organs in Nuphar are shared with the magnoliid Persea americana (avocado), supporting the inference that this is the ancestral condition in angiosperms. Consequently, the predominantly organ-specific transcriptional programs that characterize Arabidopsis flowers (and perhaps other eudicots) are derived. The transcriptional landscapes in Arabidopsis correlate with a shift toward morphologically distinct floral organs, including differentiated sepals and petals, and a perianth distinct from stamens and carpels. In contrast to most eudicots, perianth organs are weakly differentiated in Nuphar and Persea, with staminodial intermediates between stamens and perianth in Nuphar, and between stamens and carpels in Persea. Our findings suggest that genetic regulation of more spatially discrete transcriptional programs underlies the evolution of floral morphology. Custom microarrays targeting 6,220 unique Nuphar floral transcripts were used to measure expression levels in eight tissues using an interwoven double-loop design for 16 arrays.
Project description:To determine the distribution of centromere units in the genome of holocentric Chionographis japonica, we performed CENH3-ChIPseq using the customized species-specific CENH3 antibody. We mixed the chromatins of C. japonica and Secale cereal (inbred line Lo7) to dilute the highly abundant centromeric Chio satellite repeats (16%) in the C. japonica genome before immunoprecipitation. In addition, to determine the large-scale genome organization, we performed ChIPseq by targeting the evolutionarily conserved eu- and heterochromatin-specific histone marks H3K4me2 and H33K9me2
Project description:Investigation of whole genome gene expression level changes in a Azospirillum lipoferum 4B associated to artificial roots, Oryza sativa japonica cv. Cigalon roots and Oryza sativa japonica cv. Nipponbare roots, compared to the strain grown in liquid culture.