Keely Glade, Utah Valley University
Academic Affairs
Cytozyme Laboratories, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT is an agricultural company that provides a range of products for large food crop farming and animal production. In order to provide data to prospective buyers on their products’ effectiveness in improving crop yields and health, they chose to study the expression levels of several different genes using Arabidopsis thaliana as their model organism. These genes include: 1) At2g14610 encoding Pathogenesis Related gene 1 (PR1), which assists in plant pathogen defense, 2) At2g29350, Senescence-Associated Gene 13 (SAG13), and 3) At2g30770, Cytochrome p450, Family 71, Subfamily A, Polypeptide 13 (CYP71A13). A. thaliana leaves were treated with a proprietary substance implicated in plant health and potential crop yield. Treated and untreated leaf homogenates were used to create cDNA from purified RNA for the quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) assays. The qRT-PCR assays were performed on the cDNA generated from PR1, SAG13, CYP71A13, with the 40S ribosomal subunit as the internal control, on an ABI 7500 Fast Real Time System using gene-specific primers and SYBR green as our reporter molecule. The fold change, a value that is a relative comparison between the non-treated and treated samples, for each gene was calculated. The results showed clear up regulation of PR1, SAG13, and CYP71A13 compared to the 40S ribosomal subunit internal control. Future experiments include qRT-PCR and microarray analyses for 11 other proprietary treatments provided by Cytozyme.