Abstract
Arabidopsis thaliana VAM3, a syntaxin homolog to yeast Vam3p, is classified as Qa-SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor) and interacts with AtVTI11 (Qb-SNARE) and SYP5 (Qc-SNARE). To elucidate a role of VAM3 in development of plant cells, we generate vam3 of Arabidopsis thaliana. These mutants exhibited the phenotypes of wavy leaves and semi-dwarfism. We focused on vascular cell and myrosin cell development in leaves. Myrosin cells, which play an important role in plant defense, were distributed only along with the veins. vam3 developed a larger number of myrosin cells than wild type. In contrast to the increased myrosin cells, the network of vascular cells was poorly developed in vam3. Interestingly, the network of myrosin cells of vam3 was compensating the immature network of vascular cells. Our findings suggest that VAM3 plays a role in the development of vascular cells and myrosin cells.
