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Mutant and Overexpression Analysis of a C2H2 Single Zinc Finger Gene of Arabidopsis

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Abstract

The goal of this work was to characterize an Arabidopsis C2H2 single zinc finger gene, named AtZFP11, that is similar to SUPERMAN (SUP) and RABBIT EARS (RBE). No altered phenotype was observed in mutants analyzed that were derived through TILLING nor a T-DNA insertion into the exon of AtZFP11. Plants derived by intercrossing AtZFP11 to SUP and RBE alleles did not display any phenotype that could be attributed to AtZFP11. Transgenic plants constitutively overexpressing the AtZFP11 protein displayed severe abnormalities. Phenotypically normal transgenic plants that contained an ecdysone-inducible promoter system fused to the AtZFP11 gene were recovered. These transgenic plants displayed similar abnormalities once induced with methoxyfenozide. Microarray and RT-PCR analysis of gene expression in plants overexpressing AtZFP11 after induction revealed changes in gene expression of a number of genes involved in auxin, jasmonic acid, and stress responses. These results suggest that AtZFP11 plays a role in regulation of gene expression and may be functionally redundant or that conditions needed to observe phenotypic differences in the mutant plants were not provided in the course of these experiments.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Adam Barnes, Marisa Bellcastro, Jessica Menk, and Jeanne Prather for technical assistance, Ray Stevens for plant care, and Drs. Sharyn Perry and Ling Yuan for manuscript reviews. This paper (No. 06-06-148) is published with the approval of the Director of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forage-Animal Production Research Unit, USDA-ARS, N220C Agriculture Science Building North, Lexington, KY, 40546-0091, USA

    Randy D. Dinkins

  2. Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, 1405 Veterans Road, Lexington, KY, 40546-0312, USA

    Randy D. Dinkins, Venkata S. Tavva & Glenn B. Collins

  3. Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky, S221 Agriculture Science Building North, Lexington, KY, 40546-0091, USA

    Venkata S. Tavva & S. Reddy Palli

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  1. Randy D. Dinkins
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  2. Venkata S. Tavva
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  3. S. Reddy Palli
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Correspondence to Randy D. Dinkins.

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Supplementary Table 1

Affymetrix probe set that displayed two-fold change or greater in the microarray experiment. (DOC 212 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Affymetrix probe sets displaying two-fold change or greater when comparing p2300VGCfEVY:AtZFP11 methoxyfenozide induced plants with the DMSO treated control. (DOC 238 kb)

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Dinkins, R.D., Tavva, V.S., Palli, S.R. et al. Mutant and Overexpression Analysis of a C2H2 Single Zinc Finger Gene of Arabidopsis. Plant Mol Biol Rep 30, 99–110 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-011-0320-7

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