The work described in this thesis consists of two different types of characterizations of the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana. The first part (Chapter 2) is concerned with the organization of the genome as a whole while the second part (Chapter 3) is concerned with a detailed analysis of two pairs of genes which are expressed in the developing Arabidopsis seed. The analysis presented in Chapter 2 is based on a characterization of the DNA sequences found in 50 randomly selected recombinant lambda clones. The clones were characterized by various blotting and restriction digestion techniques to determine their content of unique and repetitive DNA and the interspersion pattern of these two types of sequences. The various repetitive sequences which were identified were characterized further as to the exact nature of the repeated sequence. The primary conclusion which can be drawn from this analysis is that the Arabidopsis genome consists predominantly of long contiguous blocks of single-copy sequences. The analysis presented in Chapter 3 is concerned with two pairs of genes which are expressed specifically and abundantly in the developing seed of Arabidopsis. These genes are characterized with respect to the time of their expression during seed development, the organization of the regions of the genome containing the genes and the directions the genes are transcribed. The nucleotide sequences of the genes and flanking regions are also presented.
