Identification and Characterization of Cell Wall Mutants in Maize and Arabidipsis using Novel Spectroscopies

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

Two methods, discriminant analysis of Fourier transform mid-range and near infrared spectra, have been developed as high throughput approaches to identifying mutations in plant cell wall polysaccharide components and wall architecture. These methods will be employed to identify in insertion tagged populations of maize and Arabidopsis a broad range of mutants involved in the biogenesis and dynamic alteration of plant cell wall architecture during growth and development. A systematic protocol using biochemical, spectroscopic, and imaging methods has been devised to categorize defects in wall structure and architecture related to development into one of six stages of wall biogenesis or disassembly. Maize lines carrying Mu-insertions and Arabidopsis lines carrying T-DNA tags will be used as primary material for both forward and reverse screens. A major practical goal of the project is to generate plants with genetically defined variation in wall composition and architecture that will permit assessment of modifications on wall properties and plant development. Since cell walls are an enormously important source of industrial raw material, we anticipate that several of the genes we identify and characterize, as well as several of the plants with genetically defined alterations, will be of economic importance. As the heritability of the mutations is confirmed and information on the possible function of the genes identified is obtained, the plant biology community will be informed of them through a web site that has been created as a repository for all cell-wall related genomics. Maize and Arabidopsis stock centers will be provided with all materials to dispense to the community at large.