Large- scaled Functional Analyses of Arabidopsis Metabolism-related Genes

Abstract

We are currently working on producing transgenic suspension-cultured cell lines that over-express or suppress Arabidopsis metabolism-related genes under strong promoters. We chose more than one thousand of metabolism-related genes, especially whose cDNA clones were available as full-length ones from the RIKEN Gene Bank. The full-length cDNA fragments were transferred into binary vectors at the downstream of the CaMV 35S promoter with a high-troughput protocol we developed. The gene constructs were introduced into the Arabidopsis suspension-cultured T87 cells with the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation protocol we developed (see Ogawa et al. in this annual meeting). In most cases, more than 70% of hygromycin-resistant calli exhibited high levels of transcripts derived from the transgenes. Unless developmental phenomena are concerned, the suspension-cultured T87 cells would be ideal for functional genomics, especially of the metabolisms observed in the cells.