Maloof Lab:Jose M. Jimenez-Gomez
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QTL analysis of the shade avoidance response in ArabidopsisPlants exhibit phenotypic plasticity in response to different environmental light cues. For example, shade from neighboring plants sensed by the phytochrome photoreceptors causes increased petiole and stem elongation and early reproduction, collectively called the Shade Avoidance Response. Interestingly, the degree of plasticity varies among strains and species, and this variation can have adaptive value. Plants form different environments exhibit different degrees of responsiveness to the same light stimulus. For example, when plants accommodated to sunny environments detect foliar shade from neighboring vegetation they respond increasing petiole and stem elongation and reducing the time to reproduction, a phenomenon called the "shade avoidance response". On the other hand, plants surrounded by tall vegetation, used to the shade and do not present this response.
To identify the molecular mechanisms underlying this differences we are performing QTL analysis using a previously developed, well characterized Recombinant Inbred Line set descent from two different natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana: Bayreuth, originary from the German low altitude fallow lands, and Shahdara, from the high mountains of Tadjikistan (Loudet et al. 02).
Single Nuncleotide Polymorphism discovery between wild Tomato speciesI use a bioinformatic approach to scrutinize the available tomato EST sequences and detect Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms. This will allow me to estimate the divergence between wild and cultivated tomato species, and will serve to have an idea of the effectiveness of the high throughput genomic methods that are and will be available soon for these species.
Molecular evolution of PHYTOCHROME BPHYTOCHROME B (PHYB) is the main plant photoreceptor involved in the shade avoidance response. This gene has been reported to be under selective pressure, suggesting that plants with different shade avoidance responses may have different functional alleles of PHYB. Under these presumptions I am sequencing and cloning PHYB genes from a number of species with diverse shade avoidance behaviours. I will soon test if the variation in light responses between these plants are due to particular amino-acid changes in this photoreceptor.
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