Characterization of proteins that accumulate preferentially in apical stem cells of Physcomitrella patens

Abstract

Asymmetric cell division in a stem cell generates two different daughter cells; one is a self-renewed stem cell daughter and the other is a differentiated, non-stem cell daughter. Although unequal distribution of mRNA or proteins has been known to play a pivotal role to specialize each daughter cell, such molecules in plants remain largely unknown. Protoplasts and apical stem cells of protonemata of P. patens divide asymmetrically to generate two different daughter cells. We have previously reported 59 genes as candidates involved in the asymmetric cell division. For those candidates, we made cDNA-citrine knock-in transgenic plants by using gene targeting technique to investigate protein localization under a control of their native promoters. We found some proteins accumulated preferentially in the stem cells but less in differentiated protonemal cells. We will also report results of functional analyses on the two candidate genes.