Last Summer
Last summer, I did research with Dr. Gingerich on the red-light pathway response on Arabidopsis thaliana. My objective was to complete an annotated bibliography, a literature review, and a presentation ready for Baylor University’s research conference. I could have started doing hands-on research in Dr. Gingerich’s laboratory, but he wanted to make sure I was knowledgeable in his research. The deal we agreed to for the end of the summer was that I was to successfully demonstrate my knowledge and work ethic to do lab research with him.
Research Plan
Again, I am proud to be a part of Dr. Gingerich’s lab team. I am doing an analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana red-light mutants identified in a genetic enhancer screen. Most specifically temperature responses. Our plan is to grow the lines under different temperature and light conditions and analyze their growth responses. There will be at least six different lines we will test. These include wild-type, the lrb1/lrb2 mutant, the lrb1/lrb2/lrb3 mutant, the phyB-9 mutant (which lacks phyB activity), and the E2-1-2 and E11-6-5 enhancer mutant lines. Each of these lines will be grown under red light (10 µmole/m2/sec) at 27°C (warm) and 21°C (room) temperatures under “short-day” conditions (8 hours of light and 16 hours of darkness). Hypocotyl length in five-day old seedlings will be measured, as this length is a sensitive and quantitative measure of light response (and thus phytochrome activity). The same lines will be similarly tested under far-red light and white light. For assessment of freezing tolerance, the same lines will be grown under white light for 12 days at room temperature (21-22°C), then transferred to -5°C for 1 hour, then 12 hours at 4°C in the dark, then 3 days at room temperature under white light. The survival rate of the seedlings will then be assessed.
Currently...
So far, it has been an amazing but rigorous time. I have started our experiment with the assessment of room temperature effects on the Arabidopsis thaliana. I made our gel in which the lines would grow on, woke up at 7am for five days to treat our lines with the night and day cycles as well as going back at 4 to turn the red LED’s off. My little Arabidopsis plants have grown accordingly and all that is left to do is measure the hypocotyl as well as creating a chart to present our findings.
Future Plans
Excitingly enough, results from this work will be presented at the 2022 UWEC CERCA event, may be presented at Plant Biology 2022, the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists, and may be included in a future publication.
