Identification of AGL24 downstream genes by using XVE inducible system

To understand the transcriptional program controlled by AGL24, we took advantage of a functional estradiol-inducible AGL24 expression system in combination with microarray analysis to identify AGL24 target genes. Keywords: inducible system We firstly compared the transcriptomes in pER22-AGL24 seedlings induced by estradiol- relative to mock-treatment, which revealed the differentially expressed genes corresponding to the elevated AGL24 expression induced by estradiol. As a chemical, estradiol itself could trigger a series of elevated or repressed genes, which might represent a large portion of false positive targets of AGL24. To rule out the genes expressed exclusively in response to estradiol instead of induced AGL24 activity, we also compared the estradiol-induced transcriptomes in pER22-AGL24 relative to those in estradiol-induced wild-type seedlings because only the former contained the induced AGL24 expression. The genes showing different expression in these two comparisons only responded to induced AGL24 activity rather than estradiol- or mock-treatment. Two replicates of microarray experiments were performed with biologically independent pools of samples. For pER22-AGL24 seedlings treated by estradiol- relative to mock-treatment, gene expression in mock-treated seedlings was used as the baseline, while for estradiol-treated pER22-AGL24 and wild-type seedlings, gene expression in estradiol-treated wild-type seedlings was used as the baseline.