| Affiliations: | |
| Project Leader: | Teleri Smith ffydd16@tamu.edu Bioenvironmental Sciences |
| Faculty Mentor: | Ping He, Ph.D. |
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Meeting Times:
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Summer 2016 (complete) |
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Team Size:
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3 (Team Full) |
| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Team members can get involved in an NSF-sponsored Green Immunology Education & Outreach Program during the summer. |
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Team Needs:
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To qualify for a team leader, the basic knowledge of Biology is required and lab experience is preferred. |
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Description:
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Maintaining active growth and effective immune response is often costly for a living organism to survive. The uncontrolled defense activation is often detrimental to the hosts, and potentially leads to massive cell death. The depletion of a key immune regulator BAK1 in model plant Arabidopsis leads to spontaneous cell death with extensive defense activation. My lab has developed a RNA interference (RNAi)-based genetic screen for suppressors of BAK1-mediated cell death. Mutants that suppress BAK1-mediated cell death are named “bak to life” (btl). The research team will isolate and characterize these btl mutants genetically and biochemically. Understanding defense and cell death control is essential for the survival of all organisms. |