Abstract
A mutation in CRUMPLED LEAF (CRL) of Arabidopsis thaliana causes a severe defect in plastid division, resulting in 1.5 chloroplasts in mesophyll cell in average. Besides the inhibition of plastid division, the mutation causes distortion of cell division planes and abnormality in cell differentiation (Asano et al., Plant J., 38, 448-459, 2004). FtsZ1-1 is one of the other genes that is involved in chloroplast division. Here we show that ftsz1-1 crl double mutants showed severer defetcs in gross morphlogy compare to the each single mutants before and after germination. Embryos of the double mutant contained enlarged shoot apical meristem and increased number of cotyledon primordia. The seedlings of the double mutants showed aberrant gross morphology of plants: small in size, pale, and leaves with narrow and asymmetric leaf lamina. The number of chloroplast in embryonic cells was reduced in the double mutant compared to either crl or ftsZ1-1.
