Abstract
The inflorescence stem of Arabidopsis elongates 3-4 cm a day and its epidermal cells elongate several times within a few days. In order to identify genes involved in the cell wall dynamics responsible for the stem elongation, we have prepared an oligo DNA microarray that consists of 762 Arabidopsis cell-wall related genes. By use of this microarray, we compared expression patterns of the cell-wall related genes between the elongating region and the region which had stopped elongation in the Arabidopsis stem. We found that several dozens of genes were upregulated in the elongating stem, suggesting their possible roles in cell elongation. On the other hand, in elongated stem, dozens of other genes were found to be upregulated, indicating their commitment to cell wall dynamics occurring after cell elongation has stopped. We are now investigating expression patterns of these genes quantitatively by real time RT-PCR.
