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Project properties |
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| Title | Regulation of phyllotactic stability in Arabidopsis |
| Group | Cell Biology |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 12/18/24/36 |
| Supervisor(s) | Merijn Kerstens |
| Examiner(s) | Prof. Viola Willemsen |
| Contact info | merijn.kerstens@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2024/03/01 |
| End date | 2025/01/01 |
| Description | Phyllotaxis is the spatial organisation of lateral organs on the stem. In Arabidopsis, leaves and flowers are positioned in a spiraling fashion, with each organ separated by a precisely controlled angle of ~137.5 degrees. We found that mutations in PLETHORA (PLT) transcription factor genes destabilizes phyllotaxis on multiple levels: i) by slightly disrupting initial organ positioning, and ii) by increasing internode length. Because Arabidopsis plants exhibit a small degree of inherent stem twisting (or 'torsion'), longer internodes lead to greater deviations from the initial established patterns, giving plt mutants their typical, destabilized spiral pattern.
In this project, we will further dissect how leaf/flower positioning at the shoot tip, internode length and torsion cooperate to establish phyllotaxis patterns. These parameters will be placed in the context of the plants' genotype (plt mutants, torsion mutants, ecotype), growth phase (rosette and flowering stage), and other external cues (hormones, light). We will also use fluorescent reporter lines to assess how the shoot tip is organized in these conditions. |
| Used skills | Phenotyping of phyllotaxis, genotyping, confocal microscopy, plant handling, data analysis (optionally in R) |
| Requirements | Basic molecular (e.g. Practical Biological Chemistry/Gene Technology) or plant courses (e.g. Plant Plasticity and Adaptation) |