Trichomes are derived from the epidermis and constitute an ideal system for studying cell division in plants. Here, a Chinese cabbage doubled haploid (DH) line (FT) without trichomes was crossed with another DH line (PurDH-1) with trichomes to develop an F2 population for fine mapping of trichome control genes. Genetic analysis showed that the trichome phenotype was controlled by a single domin...

Segregation for 289 random amplified polymorphic DNA markers (RAPDs) has been determined in 106 F z plants of an interspecific hybrid (H27) between M icro~eris douglasii (strain B14) and M. bigelovii (C94). Multicelluar trichomes ("type D", specific for Microseris) occur on the leaf teeth of early vegetative rosettes of the B 14 parent and on the leaf blades of later rosettes in both parents. T...

Building a multicellular organism, like a plant, from a single cell requires the coordinated formation of different cell types in a spatiotemporal arrangement. How different cell types arise in appropriate places and at appropriate times is one of the most intensively investigated questions in modern plant biology. Using models such as trichome formation, root hair formation, and stomatal devel...

Trichome patterning in Arabidopsis thaliana is regulated by a regulatory feedback loop of the trichome promoting factors TRANSPARENT TESTA GLABRA1 (TTG1), GLABRA3 (GL3)/ENHANCER OF GL3 (EGL3), and GL1 and a group of homologous R3MYB proteins that act as their inhibitors. Together, they regulate the temporal and spatial expression of GL2 and TTG2, which are considered to control trichome cell di...

Trichomes, which are widely used as an important diagnostic characteristic in plant species delimitation, play important roles in plant defense and adaptation to adverse environments. In this study, we used two sister poplar species, Populus pruinosa and Populus euphratica-which have, respectively, dense and sparse trichomes-to examine the genetic differences associated with these contrasting p...

Black mustard, Brassica nigra, is highly variable in both constitutive resistance and induction response following damage by herbivores. A focal population from Ithaca, New York, was used to test the following two predictions of optimal defense theory: (1) that allocation to resistance will reduce plant performance in the absence of herbivores; and (2) that induction response will be negatively...

The NAM, ATAF1/2, and CUC (NAC) are plant-specific transcription factors that regulate multiple aspects of plant growth and development and plant response to environmental stimuli. We report here the identification of NTM1-LIKE8 (NTL8), a membrane-associated NAC transcription factor, as a novel regulator of trichome formation in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). From an activation-tagged Arab...

Plant cells employ the actin cytoskeleton to stably position organelles, as tracks for long distance transport, and to reorganize the cytoplasm in response to developmental and environmental cues. While diverse classes of actin binding proteins have been implicated in growth control, the mechanisms of cytoskeletal reorganization and the cellular functions of specific actin filament arrays are u...

WRKY transcription factors (TFs) are plant specific and play important roles in regulating diverse biological processes. To identify TFs with broad-spectrum effects on various stress responses in Brassica napus, an important oil crop grown across diverse ecological regions worldwide, we functionally characterized Bna.TTG2 genes, which are homologous to the Arabidopsis AtTTG2 (WRKY44) gene. Four...