Unravelling the mysteries of the F-Box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT and its homologs in maize

A major bottleneck in crop improvement is our limited knowledge of the genetics that underpin agriculturally important traits. The Arabidopsis F-box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT (HWS) and its homologs have received attention in this regard due to their involvement in wide-ranging aspects of plant development...

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Main Author: Heatley, Matt
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/61027/
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author Heatley, Matt
author_facet Heatley, Matt
author_sort Heatley, Matt
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description A major bottleneck in crop improvement is our limited knowledge of the genetics that underpin agriculturally important traits. The Arabidopsis F-box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT (HWS) and its homologs have received attention in this regard due to their involvement in wide-ranging aspects of plant development. However, if they are to prove useful more work is required in order to unravel exactly how they achieve this. Here, an in-depth functional assessment that focused on key developmental processes was undertaken to help further characterise HWS and its homologs in maize. A bioinformatic-based analysis identified evidence of functional divergence and equivalence amongst these genes that were then validated experimentally in part. However, attempts to determine whether the maize genes participate in the establishment of kranz anatomy and leaf morphogenesis were inconclusive. On the other hand, a separate phenotypic analysis revealed roles for HWS in regulating aspects of the vasculature but not the cuticle. Nevertheless, the ways in which this feature responded to its misexpression were not always straightforward and will require further investigation.
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spelling nottingham-610272025-02-28T14:58:28Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/61027/ Unravelling the mysteries of the F-Box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT and its homologs in maize Heatley, Matt A major bottleneck in crop improvement is our limited knowledge of the genetics that underpin agriculturally important traits. The Arabidopsis F-box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT (HWS) and its homologs have received attention in this regard due to their involvement in wide-ranging aspects of plant development. However, if they are to prove useful more work is required in order to unravel exactly how they achieve this. Here, an in-depth functional assessment that focused on key developmental processes was undertaken to help further characterise HWS and its homologs in maize. A bioinformatic-based analysis identified evidence of functional divergence and equivalence amongst these genes that were then validated experimentally in part. However, attempts to determine whether the maize genes participate in the establishment of kranz anatomy and leaf morphogenesis were inconclusive. On the other hand, a separate phenotypic analysis revealed roles for HWS in regulating aspects of the vasculature but not the cuticle. Nevertheless, the ways in which this feature responded to its misexpression were not always straightforward and will require further investigation. 2020-07-24 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/61027/1/THESIS_corrected.pdf Heatley, Matt (2020) Unravelling the mysteries of the F-Box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT and its homologs in maize. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. maize Arabidopsis genetics plant development
spellingShingle maize
Arabidopsis
genetics
plant development
Heatley, Matt
Unravelling the mysteries of the F-Box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT and its homologs in maize
title Unravelling the mysteries of the F-Box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT and its homologs in maize
title_full Unravelling the mysteries of the F-Box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT and its homologs in maize
title_fullStr Unravelling the mysteries of the F-Box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT and its homologs in maize
title_full_unstemmed Unravelling the mysteries of the F-Box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT and its homologs in maize
title_short Unravelling the mysteries of the F-Box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT and its homologs in maize
title_sort unravelling the mysteries of the f-box gene hawaiian skirt and its homologs in maize
topic maize
Arabidopsis
genetics
plant development
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/61027/