Decoding cell surface processes regulating cell fate in plants

模式形成，即细胞命运的空间组织，是多细胞生物的核心特征。在植物中，细胞通常被认为是通过响应位置信号来采取特定的命运。这就提出了一个问题，即细胞命运的调节是如何由这些信号控制的。拟南芥根表皮的图案形成是研究其分子和细胞机制的一个方便的模型系统。根表皮产生两种容易区分的细胞类型，毛细胞和非毛细胞。一种被充分描述的调节表皮细胞命运的机制涉及细胞类型特异性转录因子复合物，该复合物通过在两种细胞类型之间移动的移动的转录因子来增强。相比之下，相应的上游信令机制就不那么好理解了。目前，已知两种受体激酶介导的信号通路影响这一过程。一个由BRI1（BRI1）控制，另一个由BRI1（BRI1）控制。这两种信号通路是否相互作用以及如何相互作用尚不清楚。我的实验室可以提供几条证据证明它们是相互关联的。该项目解决了两个信号通路之间串扰的分子和遗传基础。该研究将有助于我们从分子水平进一步了解调控植物表皮细胞命运的细胞间信号转导机制。

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.