THE CONTROL OF MERISTEM FATE BY GRASS C2H2-TYPE TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS

BELLINO CAROLINA D.;; REINHEIMER RENATA

Congreso; LIV Reunión anual de la sociedad Argentina de Investigaciones en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2018

The grass family includes species among which are outstanding cereals that constitute a very important part of human intake. The final form of the plant depends on the number, localization and fate of meristems. In grasses, the Cys2-His2-type (C2H2) zinc finger transcription factors seem to be important in controlling the fate of meristems. The aim of this work is to investigate the function of some of the grass C2H2-type transcription factors during early stages of plant development. To begin the characterization, we investigated the expression preference of the coding gene throughout the root, stem, leaf and inflorescence of the Setaria viridis (Sv) plant. In particular, SvC2H2 is preferentially expressed in inflorescence with developing branches. The expression decays at late stages of inflorescence development. In order to generate knowledge about its function, plants of A. thaliana that overexpressed this gene were characterized. The phenotype suggests that SvC2H2 is involved in meristems development regulation, hormones biosynthesis and signaling pathway.