PLANT-DEVELOPMENT · Investigating a role for the plant hormone, auxin, in coordinating dorsiventral boundary establishment during organogenesis in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana

The objective of this project is to understand what controls outgrowth along the margins of leaves and other plant lateral organs. There is evidence that blade outgrowth requires two conditions. One is the establishment of a genetic boundary between the upper (dorsal) and lower (ventral) sides of the leaf organ, which relies on the combined action of polarity genes. The other is the accumulation of the growth promoting phytohormone, auxin. This proposal describes a novel approach to study the expression of relevant genes in living plants in real time, using the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. This strategy will allow us not only to follow the fate of individual cells and tissues but also to map the expression of several genes simultaneously. By combining this sophisticated live imaging approach with novel genetic perturbation strategies this study will allow us to gain new insights into one of the fundamental processes of plant growth. Specifically, this proposal will reveal how plants coordinate two key patterning mechanisms during dorsiventral boundary establishment.