ABSTRACT
Over the last three decades, novel "omics" platform technologies for the sequencing of DNA and complementary DNA (cDNA) (RNA-Seq), as well as for the analysis of proteins and metabolites by mass spectrometry, have become more and more available and increasingly found their way into general laboratory life. With this, the ability to generate highly multivariate datasets on the biological systems of choice has increased tremendously. However, the processing and, perhaps even more importantly, the integration of "omics" datasets still remains a bottleneck, although considerable computational and algorithmic advances have been made in recent years. In this mini-review, we use a number of recent "multi-omics" approaches realized in our laboratories as a common theme to discuss possible pitfalls of applying "omics" approaches and to highlight some useful tools for data integration and visualization in the form of an exemplified case study. In the selected example, we used a combination of transcriptomics and metabolomics alongside phenotypic analyses to functionally characterize a small number of Cycling Dof Transcription Factors (CDFs). It has to be remarked that, even though this approach is broadly used, the given workflow is only one of plenty possible ways to characterize target proteins.
ABSTRACT
Auxin is associated with the regulation of virtually every aspect of plant growth and development. Many previous genetic and biochemical studies revealed that, among the proposed routes for the production of auxin, the so-called indole-3-pyruvic acid (IPA) pathway is the main source for indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) in plants. The IPA pathway involves the action of 2 classes of enzymes, tryptophan-pyruvate aminotransferases (TRYPTOPHAN AMINOTRANSFERASE OF ARABIDOPSIS 1(TAA1)/TRYPTOPHAN AMINOTRANSFERASE RELATED (TAR)) and flavin monooxygenases (YUCCA). Both enzyme classes appear to be encoded by small gene families in Arabidopsis consisting of 5 and 11 members, respectively. We recently showed that it is possible to induce transcript accumulation of 2 YUCCA genes, YUC8 and YUC9, by methyl jasmonate treatment. Both gene products were demonstrated to contribute to auxin biosynthesis in planta. (1) Here we report that the overexpression of YUC8 as well as YUC9 led to strong lignification of plant aerial tissues. Furthermore, new evidence indicates that this abnormally strong secondary growth is linked to increased levels of ethylene production.
