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Content archived on 2024-05-29

Stem cell maintenance and reactivation in lateral root initiation

Objective

Lateral roots are essential to form a dense root network allowing plants to take up water and minerals effectively from the soil. Laterals are initiated from a specific organogenic cell layer within the differentiated root known as the pericycle.

The establishment and maintenance of the pericycle and the subsequent process of lateral root formation is an interesting model to study how stem-cells can be maintained within an otherwise differentiated and endoreduplicated tissue, and how these cells are re-activated into division in response to mitogenic signals.

Recently the host laboratory has investigated in detail the expression patterns of D-type cyclin (CYCD) genes in roots. Whilst several CYCD genes are expressed during the establishment and proliferation of the new pericycle cells within the primary root meristem, only two are expressed in association with the mature pericycle or during early lateral root initiation.

In particular, CYCD2;1 persists in the mature pericycle, but disappears on lateral root initiation, whereas CYCD1;1 is associated with proliferating primordial cells of lateral roots. In this project, I will investigate the hypothesis that the D-type cyclins CYCD2;1 and CYCD1;1 and their interactions with inhibitor proteins KRPs are important for maintaining the organogenic capacity of the pericycle and in the subsequent induction of lateral root induction.

The proposed model is that CYCD2;1 maintains pericycle cells in a ready-to-go state until lateral root induction is triggered by auxin. Understanding the activity and control of these proteins is therefore of central importance to integrating an understanding of cell-cycle control with plant development.

The host lab has the materials and the expertise in cell and developmental biology to carry out the proposal work and will provide both an excellent complement to the existing skills of the applicant in biochemical techniques and an international training environment.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

FP6-2005-MOBILITY-5
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

EIF - Marie Curie actions-Intra-European Fellowships

Coordinator

THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
EU contribution
No data
Total cost
No data