Dr Nijat Imin & Professor Barry Rolfe (RSBS),

Plants are well known for their regeneration capacity or regaining totipotency, through dedifferentiation and proliferation of somatic cells, to become a new organism. This process is also known as somatic embryogenesis (SE). However, a little is known at the molecular level about how this process initiated and controlled. Somatic embryogenesis is a developmental process by which a bipolar structure, resembling a zygotic embryo, develops from a non-zygotic cell. Somatic embryogenesis can be induced in culture. For example, leaf explants or protoplasts undergo dedifferentiation to produce calli which may give rise to embryos if given the right hormone or combination of hormones. Medicago truncatula, superembyrogenic line 2HA undergoes SE 500 times more than its progenitor cv. Jeamlong when supplied with auxin and cytokinin. Using this system in combination of proteomics and quantitative real-time PCR analyses, we have identified several genes including transcription factors that are essential during the process of SE.

Objective of the project is to further characterise these genes and identify interacting proteins or potential target genes. We have expressed some of the genes in E.coli and polyclonal antibodies will be available for use and in particular they will be used to visualise protein expression in-vitro and will attempt chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis to identify DNA which may be regulated by these genes. The project will utilise a range of techniques in molecular biology and biochemistry.

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