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Genome‐wide identification of EMBRYO ‐ DEFECTIVE ( EMB ) genes required for growth and development in Arabidopsis
Author(s) -
Meinke David W.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.16071
Subject(s) - arabidopsis , biology , mutant , arabidopsis thaliana , gene , genetics , genome , computational biology , embryo , genetic screen , forward genetics
Summary With the emergence of high‐throughput methods in plant biology, the importance of long‐term projects characterized by incremental advances involving multiple laboratories can sometimes be overlooked. Here, I highlight my 40‐year effort to isolate and characterize the most common class of mutants encountered in Arabidopsis ( Arabidopsis thaliana ): those defective in embryo development. I present an updated dataset of 510 EMBRYO ‐ DEFECTIVE ( EMB ) genes identified throughout the Arabidopsis community; include important details on 2200 emb mutants and 241 pigment‐defective embryo ( pde ) mutants analyzed in my laboratory; provide curated datasets with key features and publication links for each EMB gene identified; revisit past estimates of 500–1000 total EMB genes in Arabidopsis; document 83 double mutant combinations reported to disrupt embryo development; emphasize the importance of following established nomenclature guidelines and acknowledging allele history in research publications; and consider how best to extend community‐based curation and screening efforts to approach saturation for this diverse class of mutants in the future. Continued advances in identifying EMB genes and characterizing their loss‐of‐function mutant alleles are needed to understand genotype‐to‐phenotype relationships in Arabidopsis on a broad scale, and to document the contributions of large numbers of essential genes to plant growth and development.