SYSTEMATIC REVERSE GENETIC SCREENS AS TOOL FOR GENE ANALYSIS IN ARABIDOPSIS

University of Cologne, Max-Delbrueck-Laboratory, Carl-von-Linne-Weg 10, 50829 Cologne, Germany

Using a T-DNA tagged mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana generated via seed transformation that exhibits severe dwarfism with a general disorientation of growth, the mutated gene was isolated by plasmid rescue. Sequence analysis revealed a striking homology to multidomain FKBPs. To elucidate the cellular role of this gene and its homologs in plants, we isolated 12 FKBP-like genes of the Arabidopsis FKBP gene family and started reverse genetic screens to isolate insertion mutants for the FKBP genes. Therefore we employed the different populations of T-DNA lines which are available through the Arabidopsis Stock Centers to generate a system for fast and reliable reverse genetic screens using these resources. To study the role of the isolated FKBP gene in its cellular context we performed 2-hybrid screens in order to isolate cellular interacting partners of this gene product. To generate genetic material for studying the interaction of FKBPs on the genetic level, we started screens for insertion mutants for the isolated 2-hybrid clones.