Abstract
ANGUSTIFOLIA (AN), a plant homolog of CtBP/BARS, controls the polar elongation of leaf cells and the trichome-branching pattern in Arabidopsis thaliana. AN has a plant-specific long C-terminal region of about 200 aa. We isolated four homologous genes of AN from the moss Physcomitrella patens (PpAN). While two PpAN proteins (1-1 and 1-2) are homologous to AN, PpAN2-1 and 2-2 have no plant-specific C-terminus. Northern analysis showed as follows. (1) PpAN1-1 and 1-2 were expressed both in protonemata and gametophores. (2) Gene expression level for PpAN1-2 was lower than that forPpAN1-1. (3) Transcripts for PpAN2-1 and 2-2 were more abundant in gametophores than in protonemata. Gene knockout lines with the insertion of the drug-resistant genes were produced for each PpAN gene in addition to generation of the double knockout lines by a gene-targeting technique. Moreover, We are now making the PpAN1-1pro:GUS and PpAN2-1pro:GUS lines. With these results, we discussed functions of PpAN genes in moss.
