CELLULAR PH CONTROL · Characterization of the Biochemical Pathway Controlling Vacuolar Acidification in Petunia Flowers

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Project objective

All plant cells, maintain a pH gradient across the vacuolar membrane throughout their life. An acidic vacuolar environment is necessary for activation of many vacuolar functions, while a neutral environment is required for most cytoplasmic functions. The mechanisms by which pH-homeostasis is achieved are still not clear. In petunia, as in all coloured flowers, the vacuole is the place of storage for the anthocyanin pigments. Anthocyanins behave as pH indicators and allow one to recognize mutants by their blue flower colour. In this way we identified 7 distinct PH loci in petunia that control vacuolar pH in the flower petals. We recently isolated PH4 and PH3 and found that they encode transcription factors, which presumably control the activity of downstream genes and proteins. Interestingly, we found that AN1, AN2 and AN11, transcription activators of the anthocyanin pathway, are also involved in pH regulation. To understand the biochemical mechanisms by which pH is regulated, we isolated a pool of target genes/proteins controlled by these regulatory PH and AN genes by cDNA-AFLP and microarray analysis. The project presented here aims to characterize the target genes of the PH regulators to unravel the biochemical pathway responsible for pH control in flower epidermal cells. The project involves a broad spectrum of techniques (molecular and cellular biology, genetics and cell physiology) and therefore constitutes an excellent, multidisciplinary and complete training program.

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Participants

• VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT AMSTERDAM · AMSTERDAMCoordinatorNetherlands

Links

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