Authors:

Eleanore Margaret Malinowski

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Lignin is a product of phenylpropanoid metabolism that is crucial for plant structure and development, but it hinders the use of plant materials in biofuel production, the pulp and paper industry, and as feedstocks for animals. These applications could all benefit from engineered lignins that are easier to degrade; however, modifying lignin often negatively impacts plant development. The combination of overexpressing the gene F5H and disrupting the genes CADC and CADD cause dwarfism, sterility, and lateral root deficiency. To study the developmental defects in these plants, we implemented an inducible system which uses the steroid dexamethasone (DEX) to overexpress F5H. We first examined the strength of the inducible construct to phenocopy cadc cadd plants overexpressing F5H by quantifying lateral root deficiencies and dwarfism. To quantify the timing of metabolic changes after induction, we tracked the accumulation of phenylpropanoids syringin and sinapolymalate. Finally, we analyzed the sensitivity of the mutant to varying amounts of DEX by generating a dose response curve to optimize induction conditions. These results reveal an optimal time to conduct RNA sequencing experiments to identify potential genes responsible for dwarfism. Our work provides a new way to study growth defects of plants with modified lignin. Keywords: Lignin; Phenylpropanoids; Biochemistry; Plant Biology; Arabidopsis

Source:

Purdue University / 2024

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Co-authors:

Eleanore Margaret Malinowski