Investigating glutamate receptor‐like gene co‐expression inArabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract
There is increasing evidence of the important roles of glutamate receptors (GLRs) in plant development and in adaptation to stresses. However, the studies of these putative ion channels, bothin plantaand inXenopusoocytes, may have been limited by our lack of knowledge of possible GLR heteromer formation in plants. We have developed a modification of the single‐cell sampling technique to investigateGLRco‐expression, and thus potential heteromer formation, in single cells ofArabidopsis thalianaleaves. Micro‐EXpression amplification (MEX) has allowed us to amplify gene transcripts from a single cell, enabling expression of up to 100 gene transcripts to be assayed. We measured, on average, the transcripts of five to six differentAtGLRsin a single cell. However, no consistent patterns of co‐expression or cell‐type‐specific expression were detected, except that cells sampled from the same plant showed similar expression profiles. The only discernible feature was the detection ofAtGLR3.7in every cell examined, an observation supported by GUS staining patterns in plants stably expressing promoter::uidAfusions. In addition, we foundAtGLR3.7expression in oocytes induces a Ba2+‐, Ca2+‐ and Na+‐permeable plasma membrane conductance.

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