The
lab is focused on understanding how the plant hormone
cytokinin is involved in regulating plant growth and
development.
To do this we are examining the group of genes
known as CRFs
or
Cytokinin
Response Factors
in both Arabidopsis and tomato. CRF are
transcription factors that are named after the AP2/ERF or
Ethylene
Response Factor
family of which they are members.
We are taking similar approaches (molecular, genetic,
and phenotype analyses at the whole plant, tissue and
cellular level) in both Arabidopsis and tomato to understand
the role of CRF in cytokinin based growth and development as
well as in abiotic stress responses.
CRFs in Arabidopsis
In Arabidopsis we have made full use of the tools available
in this genetic model system to study CRFs. Mutants,
transcript and gemonic analyses, bioassays, and protein movement studies have
generated the baseline of information on CRFs. We are
continuing to build on these results to gain a better
understanding of how and where CRFs function in plant development
and abiotic stress responses.
CRFs in Tomato (SlCRFs)
In tomato we identified and
initially characterized all the SlCRFs
in this species. This work has established basic tissue expression patterns throughout the
plant and hormanal response of SlCRFs to cytokinin and
auxin. Recent work is focused on SlCRF response to
abiotic stress as well as generally determining their
functional roles. Connections between Arabidopsis and
tomato functional orthologs are beging explored using
similar approaches as noted above for Arabidopsis
studies.
Rashotte Lab
