To explore the function of light-harvesting complex protein (LHCP) in Arabidopsis growth and development, the Leclere and Bartel seed collection was screened. In this collection randomly cloned cDNAs are expressed under the CaMV35S promoter. A pale green line has been identified and characterized in more details. Analysis of the inserted cDNA in the pale green line showed it encodes LHCB1 prote...

Abstract Rapid alkalinization factor (RALF) is widespread throughout the plant kingdom and controls many aspects of life. Current studies on regulatory mechanism underlying RALF function mainly focus Arabidopsis, but little known about role in crop plants. Here, we systematically comprehensively analyzed relation between family genes from five important crops those model Arabidopsis thaliana . ...

The floral transition is a key decision during plant development. While different species have evolved diverse pathways to respond to different environmental cues to flower in the correct season, key properties such as irreversibility and robustness to fluctuating signals appear to be conserved. We have used mathematical modeling to demonstrate how minimal regulatory networks of core components...

The past year has seen the completion of the genome sequence of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana and the initial sequence reports of the human genome. The availability of completely sequenced eukaryotic genomes from disparate phylogenetic lineages has opened the door to comparative analyses and a better understanding of the evolutionary processes shaping genomes. Complex many-to-many re...

Studies of wild populations of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana have started to reveal how patterns of DNA methylation change in response to the local environment.

A long-standing question in evolutionary biology is what defines a species. The biological species concept considers a species as a population of individuals that interbreeds freely and produces viable offspring. Therefore, reproductive isolation is the essence of species. Hybrid necrosis is one form of post-zygotic reproductive isolation. In this chapter, we summarize what is known to date abo...

Brassica oleracea is closely related to the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Despite this relationship, it has been difficult to both identify the most closely related segments between the genomes and determine the degree of genome replication within B. oleracea relative to A. thaliana. These difficulties have arisen in part because both species have replicated genomes, and the criteria used ...