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Genetic Approaches to Understanding the Regulation of Tryptophan Biosynthesis

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Cellular Integration of Signalling Pathways in Plant Development

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASIH,volume 104))

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Abstract

Little is known about how amino acid metabolism is regulated in higher plants despite our extensive knowledge of the same processes in prokaryotes and fungi (see reviews by Galili, 1995; Herrmann, 1995; Lam et al., 1995; Radwanski and Last, 1995). The physiological roles of different isozymes is not clear, regulatory elements in amino acid biosynthetic gene promoters have not been defined and, in contrast to microorganisms, nothing is known about factors interacting with these promoters to affect gene expression. However, genes have been cloned for all of the enzymes in the Arabidopsis tryptophan biosynthetic pathway, antibodies were produced against six out of the seven proteins, and mutants obtained or antisense plants constructed for six out of the seven proteins (Bender and Fink, 1995; Radwanski and Last, 1995; Li and Last, 1996). In addition, the induction of the tryptophan pathway in response to a variety of environmental conditions (as discussed below) provides an excellent opportunity to pursue genetic approaches to understanding the regulation of this important pathway.

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© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Denby, K.J., Last, R.L. (1998). Genetic Approaches to Understanding the Regulation of Tryptophan Biosynthesis. In: Lo Schiavo, F., Last, R.L., Morelli, G., Raikhel, N.V. (eds) Cellular Integration of Signalling Pathways in Plant Development. NATO ASI Series, vol 104. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-72117-5_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-72117-5_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-72119-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-72117-5

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