Videomicroscopy and Microinjection Studies of Maize Meiocytes

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9407867 Wick This is a Career Advancement Award to support research activities during Dr. Wick's sabbatical. The aim of the project is to develop maize meiocytes as a useful system for studying the dynamics of cytoskeletal elements during meiosis. In collaboration with her sabbatical hosts, the PI will establish a culture system for maize meiocytes that will allow their observation by differential interference microscopy in the living state as the cells undergo meiosis. Specific antibodies will be microinjected, or specific reagents known to disrupt microtubules or actin microfilaments will be applied to the cells, and the effects of these perturbants on meiosis, division plane determination, and cytokinesis in wild-type and male-sterile mutant maize will be assessed. %%% This is a Career Advancement Award to support research activities during Dr. Wick's sabbatical. The process of meiosis, or "reduction division," is critically important to sexual reproduction in eukaryotes, but is very poorly understood. Meiosis is a specialized , complex, multi-step type of cellular division, in which a diploid cell gives rise to a haploid gamete. In this process, the genetic material of the diploid progenitor cell, which is present as pairs of chromosomes one each of which was originally derived from each parental gamete, is very accurately split into two separate but functionally equivalent portions, each portion containing one each of each of the pairs. The ultimate fate of the resulting gamete is sexual union with the corresponding other-sex gamete, to give rise to a new diploid zygote which then develops into a new organism. In this project, the model organism under study is maize (corn), which is not only a potentially useful model system for higher plant meiosis in general, but is in its own right an important subject of study given the agricultural and nutritional significance of hybrid corn. The experiments proposed will provide important insights into the cellular mechanisms whereby the meiotic chromosomes are separated from each other. ***