Research Abstract:
Meristems are small groups of cells from which all parts of the plant arise. By maintaining a collection of meristem cells throughout their lives, plants are able to adapt their form to their environment to a much greater degree than animals, whose adult body plan is established early in the embryo. Meristems determine plant architecture by dynamically integrating environmental and genetic cues to determine numbers and positions of leaves, branches, and flowers, the course of root growth, the time to maturation, and the course of flower and fruit development. The long-term goal of understanding meristem function is to more directly control plant architecture for improvement of agricultural yield in a wide variety of diverse growth conditions.
Meristem activities possess a complexity that belies their small size and simple appearance. This complexity is reflected in signaling events that take place among meristem cells and between the meristem and other parts of the plant. Different parts of the meristem must coordinate their activities to properly allocate cells to primordia and stem growth, while maintaining a pool of cells for future growth. We are interested in elucidating the nature of these signals. We used a sensitized screen to identify genes involved in meristem activity, and are currently using a variety of genetic, molecular, and biochemical approaches to characterize these genes and their role in plant development.
Selected Publications:
Zeng Q, Wang X, Running, MP. Dual lipid modification of Arabidopsis thaliana Gγ-subunits is required for efficient plasma membrane targeting. Plant Physiology 2007 143:1119-1131.
Running MP. Genetics of Flower Development and Patterning. In: Floriculture, Ornamental and Plant Biotechnology Vol I 1-11 2006 Teixeira da Silva JA (ed) Global Science Books UK.
Dornier P, Lunde C, Vollbrecht E, Nardmann N, Running M, Jackson D, Hake S, Werr W. The thick tassel dwarf1 locus encodes a leucine rich repeat receptor kinase: A putative maize orthologue of CLAVATA1 in Arabidopsis. Development 2005 132:1235-1245.
Johnson CD, Chary SN, Chernoff EA, Zeng Q, Running MP, Crowell DN. Protein geranylgeranyltransferase I is involved in specific aspects of abscisic acid and auxin signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Physiology 2005 139:722-733.
Running MP, Lavy M, Sternberg H, Balichet A, Gruissem W, Hake S, Ori N, Yalovsky S. Enlarged meristems and delayed growth in plp mutants result from lack of CaaX prenyltransferases. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2004 101:7815-7820.
Last Updated: 07/22/2008 |