u n d e r g r a d u a t e . r e s e a r c h.. o p p o r t u n i t i e s

The overall goal of the research in my lab is to understand: a) how plants activate defense against pathogens, and b) how plants sense the environment. We use Arabidopsis plants in our studies. Arabidopsis is the best and most extensively studied model plant for molecular genetic studies.

Genetic and molecular mechanisms regulating plant-pathogen interactions: Hypersensitive response (HR) is one of the most important defense mechanism activated by plants in response to pathogen attack. HR is defined as a rapid cell death response by the plant at the attempted site of infection, and is believed to restrict the growth and spread of the pathogen. The initiation of HR requires an elicitor produced by the pathogen, its recognition by the plant, signal transduction and finally activation of several plant defense genes. In many cases, HR is followed by development of long lasting systemic resistance and is know as systemic acquired resistance (SAR). SAR provides resistance to subsequent attacks by a wide variety of pathogens. This project involves understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating activation of hypersensitive response, systemic acquired resistance, and disease-associated host cell death during pathogen infections in Arabidopsis. We use genetic, molecular and genomic approaches to identify the genes and to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in regulating defense in plants against pathogens.

Functional genomics of cell signaling in plants: Receptor-like kinases (RLKs) are involved in perception of stimuli through the cell surface. In Arabidopsis RLKs constitute a large family consisting of more than 600 family members. However, the function of very few of these genes is known. We have initiated a project directed towards functional analysis of RLKs in Arabidopsis. Several hundred RLK genes have been targeted for this project. This involves construction of transgenic plants expressing chimeric RLKs, which can induce a visible response when they sense an environmental stimulus. Thus these transgenic plants should be useful to identify Arabidopsis RLKs for a wide variety of biotic and abiotic environmental stimuli and possibly those involved in developmental processes.

These projects involve experiments such as isolation and analysis of DNA and RNA, gene cloning, PCR, construction and analysis of transgenic plants, fluorescence microscopy, genetic analysis of transgenic plants etc.

Restrictions: Students should be able to contribute a minimum of 10 hours per week for research work.

Ramesh Raina
601A BRL
443-4546
raraina@syr.edu