Molecular Genetics of Arabidopsis

开花植物的地上部分由几百个细胞组成，这些细胞统称为芽顶分生组织，位于每个芽的顶端。除了认识到分生组织细胞的许多活动依赖于细胞间传递的信息外，人们还不太清楚这些细胞是如何分裂、改变基因表达模式并产生植物组织的。本文提出了一种新的方法来研究分生组织细胞之间的交流，通过使用专门的显微镜来跟踪单个细胞的分裂，改变它们的基因表达模式，并分化成茎、叶和花。通过同时激活或灭活产生或允许对细胞间通信信号作出反应的基因，将有可能发现通信网络变化对基因表达模式和细胞生长和分裂的直接影响。这些研究应该有助于阐明细胞间通讯如何控制植物生长。此外，显微镜将用于跟踪培养植物组织中新分生组织的形成，从而阐明导致新分生组织形成的步骤。获得对植物生长的基本了解的潜在影响是更好地了解作物及其育种，并对通信网络的原理有新的认识。通过学生本科生研究人员计划招募的本科生、一名研究生和一名博士后将参与拟议的研究。

The above-ground parts of flowering plants arise from a few hundred cells, collectively called the shoot apical meristem, found at the tip of each shoot. How these cells divide, change their patterns of gene expression and produce plant tissues is not well understood, other than the recognition that many of the activities of meristem cells depend on messages sent between the cells. What is proposed here is a new way to study communication between the cells of the meristem by using a specialized microscope to follow the individual cells as they divide, change their patterns of gene expression, and differentiate to become stem, leaves and flowers. By simultaneously activating or inactivating the genes that make, or allow response to, cell-cell communication signals, it will be possible to discover the immediate effects of changes in the communication network on patterns of gene expression and of cell growth and division. These studies should help elucidate how cell-cell communication controls plant growth. Additionally the microscope will be used to follow the formation of new meristems in cultured plant tissue, so as to elucidate the steps that lead to organization of a new meristem. The potential impact of gaining a fundamental understanding of plant growth is a better understanding of crops and their breeding and a new understanding of principles of communication networks. Undergraduate students recruited through the Student Undergraduate Research Fellows program, a graduate student, and a postdoctoral fellow will participate in the proposed research.