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The Stability Of Epigenetic Variants That Can Act As Loci Causing Phenotypic Change, Raul Faburrieta May 2024

The Stability Of Epigenetic Variants That Can Act As Loci Causing Phenotypic Change, Raul Faburrieta

Biology Theses

Epigenetic variations are a possible source of heritable phenotypic variation. In this study I focus on phenotypic alterations seen in epigenetic Recombinant Inbred Lines (epiRILs) of Arabidopsis thaliana. These epiRILs allow me to study the effects differentially methylated regions (DMRs) have on phenotypic variance. In a study performed in 2014 by Cortijo et al., they found that DMR’s affect flowering time and root length when grown under greenhouse conditions. In this study, I replicated the Cortijo et al. (2014) study, with some changes, to see whether the same significant eQTL regions are found. I found that, some of the eQTLs …


Investigating The Function Of Protein S-Acyltransferase 2 In Arabidopsis Thaliana Using Crispr Mutants, Nicole Benjamin Jan 2024

Investigating The Function Of Protein S-Acyltransferase 2 In Arabidopsis Thaliana Using Crispr Mutants, Nicole Benjamin

Honors Theses and Capstones

Arabidopsis thaliana contains 24 Protein Acyl Transferases (PATs). These enzymes are responsible for catalyzing the addition of a palmitate to a target substrate (palmitoylation). However, beyond its broad enzymatic function, it is unknown how PATs interact on a cellular level. This research focuses on identifying the function of PAT2. CRISPR-Cas9 was used to create deletion mutations that would result in a non-functional PAT. Two plants homozygous for a pat2 deletion were identified: pat2-5 and pat2-6. Preliminary results suggest that pollen grains in both pat2 mutants are larger in both length and width. Additionally, it appears that mutant pollen tends to …


Construction And Analysis Of Genetic Regulatory Networks With Rna-Seq Data From Arabidopsis Thaliana, Tessa Kriz Jan 2021

Construction And Analysis Of Genetic Regulatory Networks With Rna-Seq Data From Arabidopsis Thaliana, Tessa Kriz

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Reconstruction of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) is a fundamental aspect of genetic engineering and provides a deeper understanding of the biological processes of an organism. Two methods were implemented to reconstruct the gene regulatory networks of Arabidopsis thaliana under two treatments: methyl jasmonate (MeJa) and salicylic acid (SA). The Joint Reconstruction of multiple Gene Regulatory Networks (JRmGRN) method was utilized to construct a joint network for identifying hub genes common to both conditions in addition to networks specific to each condition. The Differential Network Analysis with False Discover Rate Control method constructed a network of connections unique to only one …


The Effect Of Metal Composition And Particle Size On Nanostructure-Toxicity In Plants, Natalie Lynn Smith Aug 2019

The Effect Of Metal Composition And Particle Size On Nanostructure-Toxicity In Plants, Natalie Lynn Smith

MSU Graduate Theses

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have consistently been shown to have a detrimental effect on bacteria, fungi, and plants. The interaction of AgNPs with plants has received considerable scientific attention, because it is potentially through plants that these structures can enter the food chain and bioaccumulate in humans and animals. To determine the effects of AgNPs on plants, Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings were chronically exposed to sublethal levels of AgNPs using a standardized method. To gain insight on mechanism of phytotoxicity, the seedlings were exposed to low concentrations of Ag+ (in the form of silver nitrate), AgNPs, or gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). To …


Defective Aba-Mediated Sugar Signalling Pathway In An Established Arabidopsis Thaliana Cell Suspension Culture Explains Its Stay-Green Phenotype At High Sugar Concentrations, Avery Mccarthy Jun 2018

Defective Aba-Mediated Sugar Signalling Pathway In An Established Arabidopsis Thaliana Cell Suspension Culture Explains Its Stay-Green Phenotype At High Sugar Concentrations, Avery Mccarthy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

An unusual sugar insensitive phenotype was identified in an established cell suspension culture of Arabidopsis thaliana. We characterized the physiology, biochemistry and genetics of the sugar insensitive cell culture, in order to identify factors contributing to the phenotype. Chlorophyll levels of the cell suspension culture were insensitive to high sucrose (6-15% w/v) and maintained a green phenotype. Immunoblotting indicated that levels of key photosynthetic proteins (PsaA, Lhcb2 and Rubisco) increased as a function of external sucrose concentration. The green cell culture was photosynthetically competent based on light-dependent, CO2-saturated rates of O2 evolution as well as Fv/Fm …


Analysis Of Argonaute-Small Rna-Transcription Factor Circuits Controlling Leaf Development, John Steen Hoyer Dec 2017

Analysis Of Argonaute-Small Rna-Transcription Factor Circuits Controlling Leaf Development, John Steen Hoyer

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Experimental studies of plant development have yielded many insights into gene regulation, revealing interactions between core transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory pathways present in all land plants. This work describes a direct connection between the three main small RNA-transcription factor circuits controlling leaf shape dynamics in the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We used a high-throughput yeast 1-hybrid platform to identify factors directly binding the promoter of the highly specialized ARGONAUTE7 silencing factor. Two groups of developmentally significant microRNA-targeted transcription factors were the clearest hits from these screens, but transgenic complementation analysis indicated that their binding sites make only a small contribution …


Glucan Synthase-Like 8: A Key Player In Early Seedling Development In Arabidopsis, Behnaz Saatian Mar 2016

Glucan Synthase-Like 8: A Key Player In Early Seedling Development In Arabidopsis, Behnaz Saatian

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Plants’ cell walls have unique chemical composition and features which enable them to play essential roles during plant development as shaping the cells and providing intercellular communication between adjacent cells. Polysaccharides, including callose, and glycoproteins are known as the main constituents of the cell wall. Callose, a linear β-1,3-glucan polymer, is accumulated at the cell plate during cytokinesis, in plasmodesmata, where it regulates cell-to-cell communication, in dormant phloem, where it seals sieve plates after mechanical injury and pathogen attack, and in male and female gametophytes. GLUCAN SYNTHASE-LIKE (GSL) genes in Arabidopsis comprise a family of 12 members. A …


Calmodulin-Like Protein 38: A Component Of Ribonucleoprotein Particles During Hypoxic Stress Responses In Arabidopsis, Ansul Lokdarshi Aug 2015

Calmodulin-Like Protein 38: A Component Of Ribonucleoprotein Particles During Hypoxic Stress Responses In Arabidopsis, Ansul Lokdarshi

Doctoral Dissertations

Waterlogging stress leads to a crisis in energy metabolism and the accumulation of toxic metabolites due to the hypoxic and/or anoxic environment associated with this condition. To respond and adapt to this situation, higher plants employ an integrated genetic program that leads to the induction of anaerobic response polypeptide genes that encode metabolic and signaling proteins involved in altering metabolic flow and other adaptive responses. The study presented here shows that the Arabidopsis thaliana calmodulin-like protein CML38 is calcium sensor protein that serves as a member of the core anaerobic response gene family and is involved in modulating the survival …


Arabidopsis Chromatin Remodeler Brahma: Its Functional Interplay With Polycomb Proteins And The Ref6 Histone Demethylase, Chenlong Li Dec 2014

Arabidopsis Chromatin Remodeler Brahma: Its Functional Interplay With Polycomb Proteins And The Ref6 Histone Demethylase, Chenlong Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

BRAHMA (BRM) is a SWI/SNF-type chromatin remodeling ATPase that plays an important role in regulation of gene expression. Tri-methylation of lysine 27 on histone H3 (H3K27me3) is a histone modification that is associated with transcriptionally repressed genes and catalyzed by Polycomb Group (PcG) proteins. BRM has been proposed to antagonize the function of PcG proteins but the underlying molecular mechanism is unclear. To understand how BRM regulates the function of PcG proteins during plant development, a genome-wide analysis of H3K27me3 in brm mutant was performed using chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by next generation sequencing (ChIP-seq). Loss of BRM leads to increased …


Two Spotted Spider Mite (Tetranychus Urticae) Selection To Arabidopsis Thaliana, Huzefa Ratlamwala Aug 2014

Two Spotted Spider Mite (Tetranychus Urticae) Selection To Arabidopsis Thaliana, Huzefa Ratlamwala

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Spider mite feeding on A. thaliana induces the production of indole glucosinolates (IGs), plant secondary metabolites that negatively affect mite performance. In this study I conducted selection experiments on A. thaliana with varying levels of IGs, to determine if mites could adapt to IGs and other defense compounds. After 12 months, mites reared on host with IGs performed significantly better on A. thaliana than mites maintained on beans. However, an adaptation cost was detected between selected mite lines and their ancestral host. The qRT-PCR data on different mite lines revealed that the detoxification genes previously identified may only be involved …


Arabidopsis Thaliana-Spider Mite Interaction: Plant Perception, Signalling, And Response, Kristie A. Bruinsma Apr 2014

Arabidopsis Thaliana-Spider Mite Interaction: Plant Perception, Signalling, And Response, Kristie A. Bruinsma

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, is a cell-content feeding chelicerate herbivore, feeding on over 1000 plant species, one of which is Arabidopsis thaliana. This research uses microarray data from two A. thaliana accessions that differ in susceptibility to spider mite feeding to identify how the plant defends itself against this herbivore. Mutant analysis of induced plant defense pathways and physiological assays of mite performance indicate that A. thaliana utilizes: a) damage associated molecular pattern receptors, PEPR1 and PEPR2, to aid in perception of attack; b) jasmonic acid as the key phytohormone involved in resistance signalling; and c) …


The Effects Of Cytokinin On The Transcriptional Regulation Of Pin Expression In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Elizabeth Burgess Jul 2012

The Effects Of Cytokinin On The Transcriptional Regulation Of Pin Expression In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Elizabeth Burgess

Honors Theses and Capstones

The processes of cell division and differentiation are critical to the development of any multicellular organism. During the formation of plant roots these processes take place at a region of the root tip called the meristem. Cytokinin and auxin are two plant growth hormones that influence this process. Although these two growth hormones are both necessary they also appear in many ways to have an antagonistic relationship. As meristematic root cells undergo differentiation they cease dividing. It has been proposed that the size of the root meristem and thus the overall rate of root growth are determined by the balance …