Genome-wide gene expression in an Arabidopsis cell suspension

Plant cell suspension cultures are invaluable models for the study of cellular processes. Here we develop the recently described Arabidopsis suspension culture MM2d as a transcript profiling platform by means of Affymetrix ATH1 microarrays. Analysis of gene expression profiles during normal culture growth, during synchronous cell cycle re-entry and during synchronous cell cycle progression provides a unique integrated view of gene expression responses in a higher-plant system. Particularly striking is that expression of over 14 000 genes belonging to all defined categories can be reliably detected, suggesting that integrated and comparative analysis of data sets derived from transcript profiling of cultures is a powerful approach to identify candidate components involved in a wide range of biological processes. Combinatorial analysis of independent cell cycle synchrony methods allows the identification of genes that are apparently cell-cycle-regulated but are most likely responding to the induction of synchrony. We thus present an integrated genome-wide view of the transcriptional profile of a plant suspension culture and identify a refined set of 1082 cell cycle regulated genes largely independent of synchrony method.