Decoding cell surface processes regulating cell fate in plants

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Pattern formation, the spatial organization of cell fate, is a central feature of multicellular organisms. In plants, cells are generally thought to adopt their specific fate in response to positional signals. This raises the question of how the regulation of cell fate is controlled by such signals. Pattern formation in the epidermis of the Arabidopsis root is a convenient model system to study the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms. The root epidermis generates two readily distinguishable cell types, hair and non-hair cells. A well-described mechanism regulating epidermal cell fate involves cell type-specific transcription factor complexes that are reinforced by mobile transcription factors moving between the two cell types. By contrast, the respective upstream signaling mechanisms are much less well understood. Currently, two receptor-kinase-mediated signaling pathways are known to affect this process. One is controlled by STRUBBELIG (SUB), the other by BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE 1 (BRI1). Whether and if so how the two signaling pathways interact is not known. My laboratory could provide several lines of evidence that they are interconnected. This project addresses the molecular and genetic basis of the crosstalk between the two signaling pathways. The proposed research will advance our molecular understanding of the intercellular signal transduction mechanisms regulating epidermal cell fate in plants.