| Affiliations: | |
| Project Leader: | Ruby Trejo rtrejo8@tamu.edu Chemistry |
| Faculty Mentor: | Hisashi Koiwa, 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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4 (Team Full) |
| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Presentation of research outcomes in various on-campus student symposia, co-authorship in the publication, and enrollment opportunities for HORT491/MEPS491 to conduct mentored research of their own. |
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Team Needs:
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Interests in genetics, genetic engineering, molecular biology, microscopy, and chemistry. Hand skills to manipulate small objects. |
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Description:
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In plants, abiotic stresses such as drought and salt stress induce lipid oxidation that leads to formation of diverse oxylipin chemicals. Oxylipins trigger various defense reactions including expression of genes involved in antioxidative defense, osmoprotection, antibiotic defense, and reprogramming cell division and differentiation. Depending on the environmental stimuli, plants produce different chemical signatures, i.e., blends, of oxylipins, that are likely tuned for triggering optimum defense responses, however, only little is known about identity and role of individual oxylipins, mainly due to the complex interaction of different oxylipin biosynthesis pathways that are coregulated during the stress responses. In this project, we will study plants that express a subset of oxylipin pathway. For this purpose, isoforms of maize lipoxygenase (LOX) genes were individually introduced in Arabidopsis thaliana. It is expected that each LOX is responsible for initiating oxylipin biosynthesis in distinct subcellular compartment, and generate unique oxylipin signatures. The research team will identify plants stably expressing LOX-GFP transgenes in segregating populations of transgenic plants. Using selected transgenic plants, the team will evaluate subcellular localization of LOX isoforms using fluorescent microscopes and stress tolerance parameters of transgenic plants using image-based root growth analysis and automated transpirational water loss analysis systems. |