Abstract
Abiscisic acid (ABA) regulates many aspects of plant growth and development, including seed maturation and germination and adaptation to environmental stresses. Despite of its important function, ABA signal-transduction-pathway still remains to be elucidated. To identify the components involved in the ABA signaling pathway, we had attempts to isolate novel ABA-related mutants. We screened for mutants that have an altered sensitivity to ABA analog, PBI-51. Although we could not isolate mutants specific to this ABA analog, we isolated several candidates for ABA hypersensitive mutant. Currently we are characterizing these mutant candidates.
As another approach, we tried to isolate ABA related mutants using a HSP90 inhibitor. HSP90 has been reported to buffer genetic variation in morphogenetic pathways in Drosophila melanogaster (Rutherford & Lindquist, 1998). We conducted a genetic screen for ABA-resistant mutants in the presence of geldanamycin, a HSP90 inhibiter. We are going to report the results of this screening.
