A student obtained Arabidopsis mutant jar-1 and found that the mutant was insensitive to JA. The addition of JA could not slow down the root growth of jar 1, and he also found that the content of JA-Ile was low in the mutant plants. JA-Ile can effectively inhibit the growth of roots, so he speculated that it might lose the conjugate enzyme activity resulting in a low content of JA-Ile. What experiments can he do to confirm his presumption? The Role of JAR1 in JA-Ile Biosynthesis and Its Effect on Arabidopsis Root Growth

JAR1 and its role in JA-Ile Biosynthesis. Its effect on Arabidopsis root growth

A few experiments can test the hypothesis of the student that JAR1 mutant plant may be displaying lower JA-Ile levels because they lack conjugate enzyme activity. To begin, measure the JAIle levels in JAR1 mutants and compare these to wild-type controls. A significant difference would indicate a change in JA-Ile biosynthesis, as Maruyama et. al. (2016). A second option is to determine the levels of JA between the JAR1 mutant control and wild-type. If there is a significant difference between the levels of JA, this would indicate a change in JA-Ile biosynthesis. The third step is to measure the levels of JAR1 genes in wild-type and mutant JAR1 cells. The difference in levels of expression would be indicative that there is a different JA-Ile metabolism (Niu et.al., 2017). Cont…