STAR · Stem cell activity in Arabidopsis
FP6 — Marie Curie Actions (Human Resources and Mobility)
- Duration
- 2004-05-01 → 2006-04-30
- EU contribution
- €169,366
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- EIF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Final Activity Report Summary - STAR (Stem cell activity in arabidopsis)
In plants, all the post-embryonic cells are derived from structures called meristems. These meristems are formed of a small number of stem cells surrounded by a pool of undifferentiated cells. These structures are highly regulated being critical, among other processes, for the balance between cell division and cell differentiation. We have been interested in similarities in the function of plant and animal stem cells. The starting point for this project was the comparison of conserved genes that are preferentially expressed in animal stem cell cultures and in plant meristems. One of the genes identified as a candidate to perform functions relevant both to the meristem and to animal stem cells was APACD. The remainder of the project focused on revealing the function of APACD in Arabidopsis. Although the APACD protein is predicted to be a non canonical thioredoxin, it showed thioredoxin activity in vitro. Ectopically expressing APACD transgenic plants caused hypersensitivity to DNA damage and to oxidative stress, whereas inhibition by RNAi caused both male and female gametophytic lethality. In addition to this phenotype, a different RNAi line showed larger cells and aneuploidy, suggesting defects in spindle function. Together, the data suggest that APACD could link DNA damage with cell division. Current work aims to test the role of APACD in spindle formation and to understand the basis for the hypersensitivity to DNA damage seen in the overexpression lines.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Stem cells are defined as those that give rise to a variety of differentiated cell types, while at the same time maintaining their own undifferentiated lineage. I am interested in testing whether conserved genes underlie stem cell functions in plants and animals, with emphasis on the less known aspect of these cells: the maintenance of the undifferentiated and pluripotent state. My host laboratory (working on Arabidopsis) and others (in mouse) have defined, by chip analysis, sets of genes that are preferentially expressed in plant and in mammalian stem cells. A comparison between those sets of genes revealed 22 that are common to both systems. This constitutes the first indication that indeed conserved stem cell functions could be shared between plants and animals. Among these shared genes, twelve are clearly related to cell cycle progression, at least one controls the transition to differentiation and others have unknown functions. I will focus on nine conserved genes for which no roles in cell proliferation have been reported. Totes whether these conserved genes are important for stem cell function in Arabidopsis, we will study their expression in moistens (where stem cells reside), their regulation by other meristematic genes, and analyse the effects of loss and gain of function. Once their function in Arabidopsis is defined we will asses whether their function is conserved also in mammals stem cells. The outcome of this project will be a better understanding of plant development and the identification of a set of genes that may be part of a conserved core of stem cell functions. From the training point of view, this project will expand my scientific expertise and approaches intone areas, give me the opportunity to establish new Europe-wide contacts and lay the foundation to pursue an independent research career after returning to my home country.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- JOHN INNES CENTRE · NORWICHCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union