| Affiliations: | Research Intensive Community for Undergraduates Summer Program |
| Project Leader: | Maricarmen Quiroz mari_quiroz@tamu.edu Biochemistry & Biophysics |
| 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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Faculty Mentor is looking for a Team Leader with some knowledge of genetics; some lab experience is also preferred. If you’re interested in joining as a Team Member, spots will be opened once a Team Leader is found. |
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Description:
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Lack of adaptive immune system and specialized immune cells, plants have evolved a robust innate immunity to protect themselves against potential infections. To understand how plant defend pathogen attacks, our lab has developed a sensitive and high throughput genetic screen with a mutagenized population of model plant Arabidopsis transgenic plants expressing a luciferase reporter gene under the control of an immune responsive gene. Mutants with altered luciferase activity upon pathogen treatment were identified and named as Arabidopsis genes governing immune gene expression (aggie). The research team will characterize these aggie mutants genetically and biochemically and identify the causal mutations via map-based cloning and next generation sequencing. |