Peering Into the Gray Cloud Using Spaceflown RNA


Continue reading

Modeling Arabidopsis Responses to Microgravity

Dr. Sarah Wyatt and graduate student researcher Marilyn Hayden are converging their knowledge of genetic research and computer-assisted network analysis to build a novel computer model. The model will collectively present International Space Station (ISS) plant experiment data from the past 10 years. The meta-analysis will provide plant geneticists with a visual, interactive network model of the genes acting and interacting across the genome in response to microgravity conditions.NODEs

The network model is part of the Wyatt Lab’s current space-based research experiment, known as BRIC-20, and will include 47 space-based plant research projects conducted by international researchers aboard the ISS. Many international scientific journals have published some of the data, but a large portion of it has never been publicly available.

Continue reading

gps2 Mutant Candidate Gene Identified

The Wyatt Lab researchers studying the gps2 mutant genome have identified a gene that appears to play a significant role in plant signal transduction. The candidate gene was identified through deep sequencing of the gps2 mutant genome and then comparing the results to the wild type (WT) genome. The analysis revealed a difference of a single gene in one area of the genome associated with plant signaling which had been disrupted by a semi-random T-DNA insertion that silenced (or shut off) the gene in the mutant. In the WT genome, the gps2 gene is intact and expresses normally during GPS treatment. Continue reading

Meet the gps Mutants

In the search for genes regulating plant signaling responses to changes in gravity, the Wyatt Lab has focused several research projects on a series of mutant Arabidopsis thaliana plants known as gps mutants. The gps mutants react to gravity differently than wild type (WT) plants. For example, when gps-2 mutants are exposed to the GPS treatment they bend the opposite way from WT plants. The predictable direction each gps mutant strain bends in response to the GPS treatment denotes a phenotype, and these physical differences are important because they are attributable to underlying genetic differences between the plants (that is, differences in genotypes).


Figure 1 – Wild type (here labeled Ws) and gps mutant phenotypes shown at room temperature “remembering” the gravity vector from an earlier GPS treatment. The wild type phenotype (panel A) demonstrates the expected gravitropic reaction; the three gps mutants show aberrant reactions to the GPS treatment characteristic of each phenotype.

One method of determining the role individual genes play in a plant genome is to randomly disrupt the WT genome and observe the effects on the plant. When the WT genome was disrupted through DNA insertion the resulting mutants reacted differently to changes in gravity (gravity persistent signaling) than WT plants. The discovery of gps mutant phenotypes allowed the Wyatt Lab to isolate early signaling events and identify genes controlling plant signal transduction by focusing on genetic differences between WT and gps mutant genotypes in response to the GPS treatment.

WT and gps2 phenotypes

Figure 2 – gps2 mutant created from WT through T-DNA insertion of Feldman Tag.

Seven gps mutants have been identified to date, and three gps mutant phenotypes are currently under study at the Wyatt Lab: gps-2, gps-3, and gps-6.

Project Profile: Microarray Analysis

Why Do the Shoots Go Up?



Figure 1: Gravity response pathway











Next Steps


