Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 106, Issue 12, Pages 4941-4946Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0900843106
Keywords
central zone; CLAVATA3; fluorescence-activated cell sorting; WUSCHEL
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [IOS-0718046]
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0820842] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems [0820842] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Despite the central importance of stem cells in plant growth and development, the molecular signatures associated with them have not been revealed. Shoot apical meristems (SAMs) harbor a small set of stem cells located at the tip of each plant and they are surrounded by several million differentiating cells. This imposes a major limitation in isolating pure populations of stem cells for genomic analyses. We have developed a system to isolate pure populations of distinct cell types of the SAMs, including stem cells. We have used this system to profile gene expression from 4 different cell samples of SAMs. The cell sample-specific gene expression profiling has resulted in a high-resolution gene expression map to reveal gene expression networks specific to individual spatial domains of SAMs. We demonstrate that the cell sample-specific expression profiling is sensitive in identifying rare transcripts expressed in a few specific subsets of cells of SAMs. Our extensive RNA in situ analysis reveals that the expression map can be used as a predictive tool in analyzing the spatial expression patterns of genes and it has led to the identification of unique gene expression patterns within the SAMs. Furthermore, our work reveals an enrichment of DNA repair and chromatin modification pathways in stem cells suggesting that maintenance of genome stability and flexible chromatin may be crucial for stem cell function. The gene expression map should guide future reverse genetics experiments, high-resolution analyses of cell-cell communication networks and epigenetic modifications.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available