The impact of mutation at the At3g55360 locus (cer10) results in a reduction in the cell length of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Abstract

Arabidopsis thaliana has been widely used for genetic analysis in plants due to the vast amount of information available to researchers. The impact of mutations at the At3g55360 locus of A. thaliana genome has been explored by many researchers. More specifically the cer 10 mutant has a transcriptional knockout mutation that prevents the synthesis of Enoyl-CoA Reductase, which is vital for facilitating cell elongation. This study explored the morphological impacts of the cer10 mutation on the cell length of A. thaliana. Results were collected for cell and leaf lengths across 3 wild and mutant type A. thaliana groups with different planting dates. The means, 95% confidence intervals and t-tests were calculated for samples with n > 3. The average cell lengths ranged from 57.9μm to 68.9μm in wild type cells and 36.2μm to 51.9μm in mutant type cells. Significant differences in average cell length between wild and mutant types were observed at day 28, 49 and 56. Based on the significant differences in the 95% confidence intervals between genotypes of A. thaliana along with the t-test analysis from days 28, 49, and 56 after planting, we can reject the null hypothesis and lend support to the alternate hypothesis that average length of mutant type leaf cells is less than the average cell lengths observed in wild type Arabidopsis thaliana of the same age.