title: FlowerNet: a gene expression correlation network for anther and pollen development.
abstract: Floral formation, in particular anther and pollen development, is a complex biological process with critical importance for seed set and for targeted plant breeding. Many key transcription factors regulating this process have been identified; however, their direct role remains largely unknown. Using publicly available gene expression data from Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), focusing on those studies that analyze stamen-, pollen-, or flower-specific expression, we generated a network model of the global transcriptional interactions (FlowerNet). FlowerNet highlights clusters of genes that are transcriptionally coregulated and therefore likely to have interacting roles. Focusing on four clusters, and using a number of data sets not included in the generation of FlowerNet, we show that there is a close correlation in how the genes are expressed across a variety of conditions, including male-sterile mutants. This highlights the important role that FlowerNet can play in identifying new players in anther and pollen development. However, due to the use of general floral expression data in FlowerNet, it also has broad application in the characterization of genes associated with all aspects of floral development and reproduction. To aid the dissection of genes of interest, we have made FlowerNet available as a community resource (http://www.cpib.ac.uk/anther). For this resource, we also have generated plots showing anther/flower expression from a variety of experiments: These are normalized together where possible to allow further dissection of the resource.
authors: Division of Plant Crop Sciences (S.P., A.F., Z.A.W.) and Centre for Plant Integrative Biology (S.P., J.K., Z.A.W.), School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, Leicstershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom; andSchool of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom (S.P., J.K.).
authors: Simon
authors: S
authors: Pearce
authors: Division of Plant Crop Sciences (S.P., A.F., Z.A.W.) and Centre for Plant Integrative Biology (S.P., J.K., Z.A.W.), School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, Leicstershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom; andSchool of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom (S.P., J.K.).
authors: Alison
authors: A
authors: Ferguson
authors: Division of Plant Crop Sciences (S.P., A.F., Z.A.W.) and Centre for Plant Integrative Biology (S.P., J.K., Z.A.W.), School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, Leicstershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom; andSchool of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom (S.P., J.K.).
authors: John
authors: J
authors: King
authors: Division of Plant Crop Sciences (S.P., A.F., Z.A.W.) and Centre for Plant Integrative Biology (S.P., J.K., Z.A.W.), School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, Leicstershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom; andSchool of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom (S.P., J.K.) zoe.wilson@nottingham.ac.uk.
authors: Zoe A
authors: ZA
authors: Wilson
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011058:Pollen / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D012098:Reproduction; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors