Exploring the Effects of Myosins on Chloroplast Movement.

Over this past summer I worked in the Hanson lab on a project entitled: Exploring the Effects of Myosins on Chloroplast Movement. The goal of this project is to expand knowledge of how chloroplasts move around the cell and to understand whether this movement occurs by a mechanism involving myosins. Previous data has shown that transient expression of YFP labeled myosins12 and 15 tail regions interacted with chloroplasts within leaves. For one half of my project I prepared multiple constructs of YFP labeled myosins12 and 15 tail regions to be used in stable transformations that will allow visualization throughout the entire plant. The second half of my project involved using Virus-Induced Gene Silencing to silence these same myosins and measure chloroplast movements by correlation to percent transmission of light through cells in plant leaves with respect to time.

My Experience

Over this past summer I worked in the Hanson lab on a project entitled: Exploring the Effects of Myosins on Chloroplast Movement. The goal of this project is to expand knowledge of how chloroplasts move around the cell and to understand whether this movement occurs by a mechanism involving myosins.