Plants use small peptide ligands and plasma-membrane receptor proteins to regulate important developmental processes and to respond to both biotic and abiotic stresses. The peptide ligand INFLORESCENCE DEFICIENT IN ABSCISSION (IDA) is known to regulate floral organ abscission (shedding) and lateral root emergence in Arabidopsis through the receptor-like kinases (RLK) HAESA (HAE) and HAESA-LIKE 2 (HSL2). In addition, components of the IDA signaling pathway are found to regulate the expression of defense genes [1,2]. We are currently exploring the role of IDA in regulating plant immunity in cells undergoing cell separation and exploring genes and proteins that are important in the IDA signaling pathway.
Project:
The master student will be involved in one out of two projects:
1. To understand how IDA is regulated and how the regulation is influenced by biotic and abiotic stress. We are investigating the molecular mechanism behind the dual function of the IDA peptide regulating both the developmental process of cell separation and in regulation plant defense. The Master student will be involved in further molecular characterizing and identification of the role of IDA in plant defense.
2. To identify signaling components of the IDA signalling pathway. For the second part of the project, we have performed an EMS mutagenesis screen and identified genes encoding putative components of the IDA signaling pathway. These proteins are likely to be direct or indirect targets of IDA HAE/HSL2 signaling. The Master student will be involved in performing functional studies for these candidate proteins and studying how they are involved in the IDA mediated regulation of cell separation and defense.
The master student will be involved in choosing her/his own project.
For both projects the student will use these techniques in the laboratory:
- Molecular cloning
- Molecular plant work, such as identification of T-DNA mutants
- Generation of transgenic Arabidopsis lines (including CRISPR)
- DNA isolation from plant tissue
- Confocal and light microscopy with a possibility to do live cell imaging, such as FRET
- (RNA isolation from plant tissue and qPCR analysis of gene expression)
The student will also learn:
- To plan a scientific project
- To plan the laboratory work
- To make scientific presentations
- Learn how to write a scientific text (the master thesis)
Supervision:
During the Master degree the student will be supervised by Associate Professor Melinka Butenko and Postdoc Vilde Olsson Lalun. The student will become part of a larger scientific community at EVOGENE with master students, PhD students and other researchers.
Literature:
- Stenvik et al. Plant Cell, 2008
- Lalun et al. elife. 2023