Abstract
In higher plant, MAPKs are suggested to be concerned in cell proliferation and pathogenetic responses. Although there are about 20 MAPK homologs in Arabidopsis thaliana, many are unknown in function.
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a unicellular alga, is most suitable model organism for analysis of MAPK systems in plant, because there are much available EST's and genomic information. We have already analyzed some MAPK homologs; CrMPK1,2. Because genomic information (Chlre3) had been available recently, we have searched MAPK homologs in Chlamydomonas. These analyses suggested that there were four TEY-type and four TDY-type MAPKs, including two plant-specific TDY-type MAPKs expressed by pathogenetic infection in higher plant, and MAPK homologs similar to ones found in pathogenetic flagellate. These results suggest that MAPKs in Chlamydomonas are evolutionally and functionally interesting.
We are now analyzing the expression of each MAPK by RT-PCR.
