Abstract
Arabidopsis arf2 mutant shows pleiotropic phenotypes, including delayed bolting time, enhanced apical dominance, dark green leaves, and sterility. This infertility of arf2 mutant flowers were due to an arrest of flower development at closed buds with short petals and stamens, and undehisced anthers that did not release pollen grains. SEM analysis revealed that inhibition of petal elongation was result from a suppression of rapid cell elongation at flower opening instead ot the cell division. Jasmonic acid (JA), a kind of plant hormones, is known to be required for anther dehiscence and petal elongation. This promoted us to examine the role of ARF2 in the JA signaling in flowers. Real time RT-PCR showed that mRNA of JA responsive genes as well as JA biosynthesis genes were up-regulated in arf2 mutant flowers. We are now analyzing the expression patterns of ARF2, DR5-GUS in arf2 mutant, and the effect of ARF2 overexpression.
