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Project 21: SAMBA: a novel regulator of plant growth
Promotor: Dirk Inzé, VIB Dept. of Plant Systems Biology, Ghent University
Co-promotor: Han Remaut, VIB Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Interactions, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Keywords: crop yield, plant growth regulation, structural biology, biochemistry, transcriptomics
Host University: Ghent University
The ongoing and prospected rise in world population and living standards puts tremendous pressure on available plant-derived commodities and associated land use. To cope with these major challenges, a profound increase in crop yield is indispensible. Plant growth is one of the major driving factors of crop yield. Our research is dealing with the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that control tissue, organ and organism size, still one of the most mysterious and fascinating open questions in biology.
Recently, we identified a novel plant protein, SAMBA, that plays a key role in organ size control in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Down regulation of SAMBA significantly enhances the size and mass of all analyzed plant organs (seeds, roots, leaves,…). SAMBA was found to interact with the Anaphase Promoting Complex (APC), suggesting it modulates the control of the metaphase to anaphase transition of the cell cycle, and thus, in effect cell proliferation. Our hypothesis is that SAMBA targets positive regulators of organ growth for destruction, thereby restricting organ growth. The aim of this PhD project is to unravel the molecular mechanism of this important novel growth regulatory gene, following two complementary approaches.
In the Inze group, you will perform genome wide analysis of SAMBA-dependent effects in the Arabidopsis transcriptome and metabolome. Genes and metabolites that are found regulated by SAMBA will be studied in further detail. SAMBA mutants also will be crossed with other Arabidopsis mutants that affect organ size and the genetic interaction of SAMBA with other known growth regulatory networks will be examined.
In the Remaut group, you will study SAMBA’s interactome and its molecular mode of action through biochemical and 3D-structural techniques. Tandem Affinity Purification with SAMBA as a bait, already identified several putative interacting proteins that will be further studied.
The proposed PhD project will provide novel insights on how plant organ size and growth is regulated. The PhD student will use a wide variety of different techniques including microarray and metabolite analysis; genetic analysis; structural biology and biochemistry.
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