Abstract
In higher plants, peroxisomes have various crucial roles such as fatty acid degradation, photorespiration and detoxification of reactive oxygen species. To better understand molecular mechanism of peroxisome biogenesis, we screened a number of Arabidopsis mutants with aberrant peroxisome morphology (apm mutants) based on the different pattern of GFP fluorescence from the parent plant. apm mutants exhibited different GFP patterns in the tissue- and/or organ-specific manners as follows, (1) elongated peroxisomes (apm1), (2) enlaged peroxisomes (apm3), (3) GFP fluorescence in the cytosol as well as in peroxisomes (apm2, apm4 and apm7), and (4) different distribution (apm5).
With regard to mutants that are defective in protein transport to peroxisomes, we reported that the mutations in APM2 and APM4 caused the decrease of efficiency of both Peroxisome targeting signal 1 (PTS1)- and PTS2-dependent pathway, as a result of defects in PEOROXIN 13 (PEX13) and PEX12, both of which have functions on peroxisoml membranes as components of transport machinery. In this presentation, we would like to discuss the phenotypes of another apm mutant, apm7.
