ИСТИНА

Motivation and Aim: Arabidopsis thaliana mutant lel demonstrate the loss of petals and stamens. Primary hypothesis suggest involvement of gene LEL in maintenance of floral meristem. We use RNA-seq to identify the place of LEL in genetic network controlling meristem development and maintenance and to investigate changes in gene expression caused by mutation in gene LEL. Methods and Algorithms: Plant material from wild type and mutant plants was collected in two developmental stages: apical meristem when flower primordial are formed and young inflorescences on the stage of the anthesis of the first flower in two biological replicates. Two independent RNA-seq experiments were performed using sequencing on Illumina HiSeq2000. Results of RNA-seq were analyzed using CLC Genomics Workbench 5.0.1 software. Results: We found about 20000 expressed genes in both wild type and mutant and about 1500 of them were differentially expressed. The majority of them controlled response to different stresses and metabolic pathways. Also we observe difference between wild type and mutant in expression of genes controlling meristem maintenance: expression of the main stem cell activity regulator WUSCHEL decreased five times, when its negative regulator CLAVATA1 increased by half. Conclusion: The profile of gene expression changes allows us to define LEL place in regulatory network as novel regulator of meristem maintenance. The study is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project № 12-04-01599).