Global gene expression pattern in mutants impaired in EMF protein complexs
(By Lingjing Chen, 5/9/06)

Initial global gene expression pattern based on 8000 Arabidopsis genes showed that 3 emf mutants impaired in EMF1 and EMF2 genes shared similar expression pattern to that of WT flower (Moon et al., 2003). In particular flower homeotic genes were precociously expressed prior to flowering and the elevation of the flower meristem identity genes. This study provided the clue that flower homeotic genes are the EMF target genes. There are other gene programs coordinately regulated in the 3 emf mutants. To further investigate the relevance of these genes to the mutant phenotype, we performed a larger scale global gene expression pattern study. We used full genome affymetrix gene chips to compare expression pattern of early flowering plants altered in members or targets of the EMF PcG protein complex.