The titan1 mutants of Arabidopsis
Wild-type // titan1 mutant
Embryo within the seedcoat, embedded in LR white resin and sectioned with a glass knife (click to
view larger image)
As shown by the pictures above, the titan1 mutants of arabidopsis
have only 1-2 cells in the embryo proper, and 1-2 cells in the suspensor. The single-celled
embryo proper (colored in green) of titan3 (right) is larger than a wild-type embryo at the heart stage (left).
This is a recessive mutation of a single gene located at the south of the chromosome 3.
The mutant endopserm contains 4 to 16 highly enlarged nuclei, which
are 20 to 500 times bigger than that in the wildtype. This picture will appear on the cover
of The Plant Journal (October issue, 1998, Liu and Meinke, 1998).
