Abstract
In Zinnia elegans cell cultures, single mesophyll cells transdifferentiate into tracheary elements in response to auxin and cytokinin. From the culture medium, we identified a dodeca-peptide designated TDIF, which inhibits tracheary elements differentiation.
To detect the localization of mRNAs and peptides in tissues, we first prepared a specific antibody against TDIF. Using the antibody and a cDNA-probe, we performed immunostaining and in situ hybridization to the zinnia tissues. Furthermore, we tried to reveal the function of TDIF, using molecular genetic approaches for Arabidopsis CLE41 and CLE44 peptides, which are the same sequence as TDIF, and CLE42 and CLE46 peptides, which are highly homologous to TDIF. Now, We are making transgenic plants suppressing the expression of their causal genes and those having their prmoter::GUS fusion. Based on these results, we will discuss the in vivo function of TDIF.
