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00.244 - Root Hair Genes

Patent Reference: International Patent Publication No. WO2008/142364.  Applications pending in US, EU, CN, IN, BR, CA and AU.

Professor Liam Dolan
John Innes Centre (Norfolk, UK)

Professor Liam Dolan’s group at the John Innes Centre cloned the RHD6 gene and a family of related sequences and characterised their expression and effects in complementation studies. The AtRHD6 protein accumulates in hair-forming cells of the root epidermis causing root hairs to form, and acts on downstream factors determining epidermal cell pattern formation, hence providing a route to stimulate root hair formation directly. The RHD6 technology affords a direct route to developing crop plants with improved root properties either by genetic transformation or by, for example, TILLING strategies to create/select enhanced genetic variation for root-hair traits. 

Menand, Yi, Jouannic, Hoffman, Ryan, Linstead, Schaefer and Dolan (2007). An Ancient Mechanism Controls the Development of Cells with a Rooting Function in Land Plants.  SCIENCE, 316 (5830): 1477-1480.

Keke Yi, Benoît Menand, Elizabeth Bell and Liam Dolan (2010). A basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor controls cell growth and size in root hairs.  NATURE GENETICS, 42: 264-267.

Contact: Dr Jan Chojecki

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