Annals of Botany 86: 953-962, 2000
© 2000 Annals of Botany Company
The Chloroplast and Leaf Developmental Mutant, pale cress, Exhibits Light-conditional Severity and Symptoms Characteristic of its ABA Deficiency
Division of Life Sciences, Kings College London, Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London, SE1 8WA, UK Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
Received: 15 May 2000 ; Returned for revision: 27 June 2000 . Accepted: 11 July 2000
The PALE CRESS gene (PAC) is essential for proper chloroplast and leaf development in Arabidopsis thaliana. The ability of pac mutants to accumulate significantly more chlorophyll when grown in low light conditions than in high light conditions suggests that carotenoid deficiency is at least partly responsible for premature cessation of chloroplast development. In addition to accumulation of low levels of chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments,pac mutants are abscisic acid (ABA) deficient and have characteristics which may be explained by this deficiency. These include reduced seed viability and, in enclosed growth conditions, increased leaf growth. Plants transformed with an antisense PAC construct often bear viviparous embryos which may be symptomatic of a deficiency in ABA. Since carotenoids are precursors of ABA, a role for PAC in carotenoid biosynthesis is further supported. The nuclear-encoded, chloroplast-localized PAC protein has been implicated in the maturation of plastid-encoded mRNAs. Thus, PAC may affect the abundance of one or more chloroplast proteins which function in the synthesis or stability of carotenoids. Using thePROLIFERA gene as a marker for cell division, it is shown that cell division profiles in the pac shoot apex are disrupted. pac leaves are relatively normal in size and shape despite the light intensity-induced variability of leaf cell defects. Copyright 2000 Annals of Botany Company
Abscisic acid, carotenoid, chloroplast development, leaf development, organismal theory, PALE CRESS,PROLIFERA , vivipary
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