Through a forward genetics screen in Arabidopsis you have identif...

Question

Through a forward genetics screen in Arabidopsis you have identified a mutation that results in leaves curling upward, rather than being flat as in wild type. You have cloned the corresponding gene and note that it is a member of a small gene family composed of three additional members in Arabidopsis. How will you determine if the other three members of the gene family have similar or distinct functions as compared with the gene you first identified?

Accepted Answer

Hey, everyone. Let's take a look at this question. Together, you have identified a mutation in arabidopsis that results in leaves curling upward rather than being flat as in the wild type. Or analysis reveals that the mutated gene belongs to a small gene family composed of three additional members in Arabidopsis. To determine if the other three members of the gene family have a similar or distinct functions compared to the mutated gene. You decide to gene rate, double mutants between the mutated gene and each of the other gene family members. What is the expected outcome if the other gene family members act in the same pathway? And we have four different outcomes that we have to determine which of the following answer choices is the correct outcome. But we have this mutation in arabidopsis resulting in the leaves curling upward instead of being flat in the wild type. And we are forming a double mutation to see what the expected outcome would be in the double mutants compared to the mutants and the other gene family members. And we know that when we have that double mutation, a double mutation reduces the effect of the mutation. And we can think of it as two negatives turning into a positive where we have that reduction in the effect of the mutation when we perform that double mutation. And in the case of the mutation that we have in Arabidopsis, we note that the mutation causes those leaves to curl upward. However, when we have the double mutation, the double mutation results in less leaves curling and more leaves being flat similar to the wild type, which means that the double mutants between the mutated gene and each of the other gene family members will have a less severe phenotype compared to the single mutants. Because the double mutation will reduce the effect of that mutation on the phenotype. Which means that answer choice b the double mutants between the mutated gene and each of the other gene family members will exhibit a less severe phenotype of leaves curling upward compared to the single mutants. Since the double mutants will have less curling of the leaves. When compared to the single mutants. I hope you found this video to be helpful. Thank you and goodbye.

Key Concepts

Gene Family

Functional Analysis

Phylogenetic Analysis

Watch next