Gene regulation by the seed maturation master regulators, LEC1, LEC2, FUS3 and ABI3 [set 2]. Arabidopsis thaliana

During seed maturation, the embryo accumulates nutrition storage compounds such as oil and reservve proteins, and acquires dormancy and desiccation tolerance. Arabidopsis transcription factors LEC1, LEC2, FUS3 and ABI3 are known as the master regulators of seed maturation because all these events during the seed maturation are severely affected by the respective mutants. In addition, the lec1, lec2 and fus3 mutants exhibit some heterochronic characteristics, as exemplified by the development of true leaf-like cotyledons during embryogenesis. To characterize these mutants at the whole genome expression level, microarray experiments were performed. Overall design: Developing seeds were dissected from the sliques of the abi3-6 homozygous plants or the respective wild type plants (Col-0) at 12 and 16 days after flowering. Seeds samples were obtained from triplicate batches of plants and used for RNA preparation.

种子成熟阶段，胚胎会积累油脂、贮藏蛋白等营养储存化合物，并获得休眠特性与脱水耐性。拟南芥（Arabidopsis）转录因子（transcription factors）LEC1、LEC2、FUS3及ABI3被认定为种子成熟的主控调节因子，因为种子成熟过程中的所有上述事件均会被对应突变体显著影响。此外，lec1、lec2与fus3突变体呈现出部分异时性特征，典型表现为胚胎发生阶段发育出真叶状子叶。为在全基因组表达水平上解析这些突变体，本研究开展了基因芯片（microarray）实验。实验设计详情：分别于开花后12天和16天，从abi3-6纯合突变体植株或相应野生型植株（哥伦比亚生态型Col-0）的角果中剥离发育中的种子；种子样本取自三批独立重复的植株群体，用于RNA制备。