Research Projects
The FL gene family
The FORKED-LIKE (FL) gene family is unique to plants and is found in all terrestrial plants. The founding member of the family, FORKED1 (FKD1) was identified by our lab in a mutant screen, because it produces leaves with non-meeting veins. In provascular cells of fkd1 mutants, the auxin efflux carrier PIN1 is less basally localized. The FKD1 protein localizes to secretory vesicles.
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Cell Polarity
The polarity of cells within a multicellular organism is critical to coordinating tissue and organ morphology. In developing veins, one of the earliest indications of cell polarity is the localization of PIN protein. The FL gene family alters the localization of the PIN protein in these cells. We are now testing whether this gene family affects polarity of other cells, such as those that produce root hairs.
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Physiological consequences
Like many plant characters, vein pattern shows tremendous phenotypic plasticity, meaning that the pattern changes in response to different environmental conditions such as heat and drought. These changes improve water availability to the mesophyll cells where photosynthesis, which requires water, is occurring. We have shown that mutations in FKD1, FL or UNH genes reduce the response of the vein pattern to heat or drought. We propose that these genes are part of the pathway that enables vein pattern to respond to changes in the environment.
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