Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 23, 2025
Lateral Root Inducible System in Arabidopsis and Maize
Published on: January 14, 2016
Genome-wide association studies meta-analysis uncovers NOJO and SGS3 novel genes involved in Arabidopsis thaliana
Brenda Anabel López-Ruíz1, Berenice García-Ponce1, María de la Paz Sánchez1
1Laboratorio de Genética Molecular, Desarrollo y Evolución de Plantas, Depto. de Ecología Funcional, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), C. U. CDMX, México.
Background:
Arabidopsis thaliana primary root growth has become a model for evo-devo studies due to its simplicity and facility to record cell proliferation and differentiation. To identify new genetic components relevant to primary root growth, we used a Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) meta-analysis approach using data published in the last decade. In this work, we performed intra and inter-studies analyses to discover new genetic components that could participate in primary root growth.
Methods And Results:
We used 639 accessions from nine different studies under control conditions and performed different GWAS tests. We found that primary root growth changes were associated with 41 genes, of which six (14.6%) have been previously described as inhibitors or promoters of primary root growth. The knockdown lines of two genes, Suppressor of Gene Silencing (SGS3), involved in tasiRNA processing, and a gene with a Sterile Alpha Motif (SAM) motif named NOJOCH MOOTS (NOJO), confirmed their role as repressors of primary root growth, none has been shown to participate in this developmental process before.
Conclusions:
In summary, our GWAS analysis of different available studies identified new genes that participate in primary root growth; two of them were identified as repressors of primary root growth.
