| Aquaporins are membrane proteins for water transport, some of which are also permeable to small nutral molecules. Aquaporins in plants have great diversities. Such diversities were explored in this study via a systematic approach. The physiological functions of 11 highly expressed Arabidopsis aquaporins were investigated, by generating loss of function RNAi plants. Among them, TIP1;1 RNAi lines displayed severe phenotypes, characterized by early senescence and complex sugar accumulation in the leaves. These phenotypes were caused by impairment in carbohydrate metabolism and/or transport. The localization of TIP1;1 was studied using GFP fusion proteins. A model was proposed that TIP1;1 participates in vesicle-based carbohydrate transportation. Loss of TIP1;1 will disturb such process and lead to plant cell death.;The stress response pathways in Arabidopsis were studied, using publically available Affymetrix ATH1 microarray data. The salt stress signaling pathways were dissected, by comparing the salt stress response to other abiotic/biotic stress responses or the response to plant hormones. The analysis, focused on the salt regulated genes, used the fuzzy k-means clustering method to identify the common and different responses between these treatments. Then, the analysis was expanded to cover all the genes in the ATH1 slides. Co-regulated genes upond stress treatments were revealed, and a search for the related promoter motifs within these genes that were carried out. This resulted in the identification of many known motifs. |
