Functional Analysis of the Arabidopsis PAL Gene Family in Plant Growth, Development, and Response to Environmental Stress  

Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) catalyzes the first step of the phenylpropanoid pathway, which produces precursors to a variety of important secondary metabolites. Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) contains four PAL genes (PAL1-PAL4), but there has been no genetic analysis to assess the biological functions of the entire gene family. Here, we report the generation and analysis of combined mutations for the four Arabidopsis PAL genes. Contrary to a previous report, we found that three independent pal1 pal2 double mutants were fertile and generated yellow seeds due to the lack of condensed tannin pigments in the seed coat. The pal1 pal2 double mutants were also deficient in anthocyanin pigments in various…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 0209819
• OS
  Ohio State University
• UO
  University of Oxford
• UG
  Universiteit Gent
• NE
  Natural Environment Research Council
• NK
  National Key Research and Development Program of China

  Award: 2009CB119000
• CF
  Centre for Ecology and Hydrology