Arabidopsis thaliana myosin XIK is involved in root hair as well as trichome morphogenesis on stems and leaves

Myosins form a large superfamily of molecular motors that move along actin filaments. The functions of myosins in plant cells are thought to be related to various processes: cell division, movement of mitochondria and chloroplasts, cytoplasmic streaming, rearrangement of transvacuolar strands, and statolith positioning. Class VIII and XI myosins are represented in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome by 4 and 13 potential genes, respectively. The roles of individual class XI myosins and their cellular targets in A. thaliana are still unclear. In this work we implemented a reverse genetic approach to analyse the loss-of-function mutants of XIK, a representative of class XI myosins in A. thaliana. Three different T-DNA insertion mutants in the myosin XIK gene showed similar phenotypes: impaired growth of root hair cells, twisted shape of stem trichomes, and irregular size, branch positioning, and branch expansion of leaf trichomes. Morphometric analysis of mutant seedlings showed that the average length of root hairs was reduced up to 50% in comparison with wild-type root hairs, suggesting an involvement of the class XI myosin XIK in tip growth. On leaves, the proportion of trichomes with short branches was doubleed in mutant plants, and the mutant trichomes possessed a mildly twisted shape. Therefore, we concluded that myosin XIK is involved also in the elongation of stalks and branches of trichomes.

Chromosomal location of a Triticum timopheevii--derived powdery mildew resistance gene transferred to common wheat

A dominant powdery mildew resistance gene introduced from Triticum timopheevii in line 146-155-T of common wheat, Triticum aestivum, was located on chromosome 6B by monosomic analysis. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and microsatellite analyses detected the presence of a T. timopheevii segment, translocated to chromosome 6B, with breakpoints between the loci Xpsr8/Xpsr964 on 6BS and Xpsr154/Xpsr546 on 6BL. The novel powdery mildew resistance gene, which has been designated Pm27, was shown to cosegregate with the microsatellite locus Xpsp3131, which is located on the introgressed T. timopheevii segment. The molecular data confirm the location of Pm27 on the translocated 6B chromosome.