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Do plant sterols regulate cellular morphogenesis and patterning in a cell autonomous way?

Reference	BB/C512210/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Keith Lindsey
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Durham University
Department	Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	215,562
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/05/2005
End date	30/04/2008
Duration	36 months

Abstract

Sterols are currently attracting strong interest as important mediators of hormone signalling in plants. Sterol mutants of Arabidopsis, such as the hydra1 and hydra2 mutants identified and characterised by us, have distinctive features (defective cell polarity, patterning and identity) not seen in brassinosteroid mutants. Intriguingly, developmental abnormalities do not obviously correlate with the spatially restricted expression of genes encoding key enzymes in sterol biosynthesis, such as HYDRA1 and FACKEL HYDRA2. The aim of this project is to determine whether the HYD1 and FK HYD2 genes regulate cell polarity, patterning and identity in a cell autonomous way, or via non-cell autonomous signalling. We will achieve this by a) the suppression of HYD1 FK expression in a tissue-specific way in wild-type seedlings; b) the activation of HYD FK gene expression in a tissue-specific way in hyd1 and fkhyd2 null genetic backgrounds; and c) the inhibition of auxin and ethylene signalling in a tissue-specific way in hyd1 and fkhyd2 null genetic backgrounds. By determining whether these modifications affect the phenotype of the mutants in tissues in which the transgene is not expressed, we will establish whether sterol biosynthesis regulates cellular development in a cell-autonomous or non-autonomous way, and clarify the role of auxin and ethylene signalling.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Genes & Developmental Biology (GDB)
Research Topics	Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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