Gibberellin (GA) Treatment of Arabidopsis Root Tips

The plant hormone gibberellin (GA) represents an important regulator of growth and development. Early transcriptional events controlled by GA are not well characterised. Previous microarray studies have identified genes responsive to GA treatment in the whole seedling. The whole seedling represents many tissues where subtle effects of GA treatment in specific tissues may be masked. When treated with GA, an effect on the growth rate of roots was observed. More specifically, the shorter root of a GA-deficient plant can be rescued to wild-type length by the application of GA. This experiment was designed to identify GA-regulated genes in the root tips of Arabidopsis. The use of a GA-deficient mutant provides a greater potential to identify genes responding to GA treatment. Root tips are ideally suited for the quick uptake of the hormone treatment. There will be two biological replicates which will each consist of a control treatment at 0 minutes and 2 hours, as well as the experimental GA-treated 2 hour time point. This system provides an opportunity to compare gene expression between treated and non-treated root tips and allow the identification of early GA-responsive genes. 6 samples were used in this experiment.