Abstract
Roots of plant alter their growth direction to escape obstacles that lie in their paths. This response has been analyzed with a simple method using inclined the agar plate. On the surface of the vertical agar plates, the roots of seedling of Arabidopsis thaliana grow straight to gravity direction. When the plate was inclined at 45° to gravity direction, the roots exhibit a wavy growth pattern. We screened six mutants, wav1-wav6, showing abnormal wavy growth pattern1).
wav2 mutant exhibits shorter wavelength pattern in wavy growth phenotype of root than wild type. The angle of the wave was two times and the pitch of wave was half to that of wild type. We revealed that WAV2 gene encodes a putative membrane protein by map-based cloning. We are analyzing the gene-expression and the function of WAV2 protein.
1) Okada & Shimura (1990) Science vol.250, pp. 274-276
