Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biosciences Related to the Environment for FY 1998

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Abstract DBI-9804234 Zhiyong Wang This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biosciences Related to the Environment for 1998. This fellowship provides an opportunity for the Fellow to gain additional scientific training beyond the doctoral degree and to pursue innovative and imaginative research into the fundamental mechanisms underlying the interactions between organisms and their environment at the molecular, cellular, organismal, population, community and/or ecosystem level in any area of biology supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences of the National Science Foundation. Each fellowship supports a research and training plan to be carried out with a sponsoring scientist. The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled genetic and molecular analysis of brassinosteroid regulation of plant development by light. Many developmental processes of plants are regulated by the environmental light conditions; and this light regulation involves the phytohormone brassinosteroids (BR). Genes mediating the BR response are being isolated as those that, when activated or mutated, can complement the developmental defects caused by insufficient synthesis of BR, such as in the det2 mutant. A putative receptor of BR (BRI1) is a membrane bound receptor kinase. Proteins that interact with or are phosphorylated by the BRI1 kinase are likely to mediate the transduction of BR signals. These proteins are being isolated using the yeast two-hybrid or phosphorylation cloning methods. Effects of light treatment on the modification and activity of BRI1 protein are being analyzed to determine how BR mediates light regulation of plant development.