An Investigation of Cytokinin Regulation in the Arabidopsis thaliana Root Meristem

This summer under the supervision of my P I, Dr. Ji-young Lee, and my mentors, Jose Sebastian and Jing Zhou, I participated in an investigation of cytokinin signaling in the Arabidopsis root apical meristem. Before my arrival, the Lee lab had already run microarray analysis on wild-type and SHORT-ROOT mutant (shr-2) backgrounds and deduced cytokinin as a potential player in the SHR-PHB (PHABULOSA) pathway. My role this summer involved detecting cytokinin expression level in various genetic backgrounds (wt, shr-2, shr-2 phb-6 and phb-7D) by monitoring GFP markers using confocal microscopy. Another aspect of my summer project involved identifying additional regulators in the cytokinin pathway. A list of genes were found with differential expression in the wild-type and shr-2 backgrounds. By cloning the coding region and assembling constructs, we aimed to over-express the candidate genes in the root apical meristem in wild-type plants. This will allow us to determine whether these genes are involved in root growth and development.

My Experience

This summer under the supervision of my P I, Dr. Ji-young Lee, and my mentors, Jose Sebastian and Jing Zhou, I participated in an investigation of cytokinin signaling in the Arabidopsis root apical meristem. Before my arrival, the Lee lab had already run microarray analysis on wild-type and SHORT-ROOT mutant (shr-2) backgrounds and deduced cytokinin as a potential player in the SHR-PHB (PHABULOSA) pathway. My role this summer involved detecting cytokinin expression level in various genetic backgrounds (wt, shr-2, shr-2 phb-6 and phb-7D) by monitoring GFP markers using confocal microscopy.