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Research:
Introduction:
The cell walls of higher plants play pivotal roles
during plant growth and development, and account for most of the
newly synthesized terrestrial biomass. Accordingly, the study
of cell wall synthesis is of considerable significance both from
a basic and applied point of view. Our lab has taken a genetic
approach to determine the roles of specific cell wall components,
and to clone genes in cell wall biosynthetic pathways. We are
pursuing two different strategies to accomplish our goals: (1)
The characterization of cell wall mutants of the plant model system
Arabidopsis thaliana, and (2) the identification of cell
wall-related genes in Arabidopsis via sequence similarities
to bacterial genes involved in polysaccharide synthesis. Using
positional cloning approaches, we recently isolated the MUR2
and MUR3 genes of Arabidopsis encoding hemicellulose-specific
fucosyl and galactosyltransferases, respectively. Both MUR2
and MUR3 are members of multi-gene families which can
now be characterized using the vast genomic resources and mutant
collections available to the Arabidopsis community.
Current Research Focus:
Biochemical genetics of plant cell wall synthesis
using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system; regulation
of nucleotide sugar interconversion pathways; plant cell wall
ultrastructure. Therefore, current research efforts focus on Glycosyltranferases
and Nucleotide Sugar Interconversion Enzymes.
For more information about our interests choose topic below.
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