Project description:Microarrays were used to evaluate the effect of sucrose on gene expression in guard cells. Strips of Arabidopsis leaves were incubated with sucrose or mannitol or no sugars, then the leaves were freeze dried and guard cells were dissected from the leaf strips and analyzed.
Project description:Arabidopsis thaliana is a well-established model system for the analysis of the basic physiological and metabolic pathways of plants. The presented model is a new semi-quantitative mathematical model of the metabolism of Arabidopsis thaliana. The Petri net formalism was used to express the complex reaction system in a mathematically unique manner. To verify the model for correctness and consistency concepts of network decomposition and network reduction such as transition invariants, common transition pairs, and invariant transition pairs were applied. Based on recent knowledge from literature, including the Calvin cycle, glycolysis and citric acid cycle, glyoxylate cycle, urea cycle, sucrose synthesis, and the starch metabolism, the core metabolism of Arabidopsis thaliana was formulated. Each reaction (transition) is experimentally proven. The complete Petri net model consists of 134 metabolites, represented by places, and 243 reactions, represented by transitions. Places and transitions are connected via 572 edges.
Project description:A chemical screen was performed in search of compounds that modify plant responses to sucrose. This screen uncovered that sulfamethoxazole (SMX), a folate biosynthesis inhibitor, acted synergistically with sucrose to inhibit hypocotyl elongation, suggesting interaction between these two pathways. Transcriptome analysis was performed to identify changes in transcript abundance that may underpin crosstalk between sucrose and SMX. Three-day-old dark-grown seedlings were treated to sucrose and SMX at concentrations that induced no change in hypocotyl elongation when administered independently, yet restricted elongation when both were present in the growth media (10mM and 0.2µM, respectively). This analysis uncovered multiple core auxin signalling components that exhibit altered transcript abundance in response to co-treatment with sucrose and SMX, suggesting that auxin signalling mediates crosstalk between these two pathways. This study highlights an input through which metabolic status can shape plant growth and development through hormone signalling.
Project description:Microarrays were used to evaluate the effect of sucrose on gene expression in guard cells. Strips of Arabidopsis leaves were incubated with sucrose or mannitol or no sugars, then the leaves were freeze dried and guard cells were dissected from the leaf strips and analyzed. RNA was extracted from guard cells dissected from leaf strips that had been treated with sucrose or with mannitol or no sugars as controls. Triplicate biological replicates were prepared for the treatments and controls. The RNA was amplified twice with T7 RNA polymerase and hybridized to Affymetrix ATH1 arrays.