Abstract
It becomes evident that transcription factors play a pivotal role for the control of gene expression in plants. However, plant transcription factors are frequently duplicated and this redundancy often interferes with efforts to identify the functions of these factors. To overcome these difficulties, we developed a novel gene silencing system, called Chimeric REpressor Gene-Silencing Technology (CRES-T), in which a chimeric repressor converted form a transcriptional activator by fusion with the plant-specific repression domain, suppresses the target genes dominantly. As a results, the transgenic plant exhibit phenotype similar to loss-of-function of the alleles of the gene for transcription factor. Using this CRES-T system we are comprehensively analyzing function of transcription factors encoded Arabidopsis genome. We describe the results of the functional analysis of the member of family of Arabidopsis transcription factors and that the CRES-T system is a powerful tool for the manipulation of plant traits.
