CNAS

Plant Cell Viewing

A research team led by Julia Bailey-Serres, a professor of genetics, reports in the Oct. 12-16 online editions of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the implementation of a method they devised to view activities of individual types of cells in a complex plant organ, such as root or a leaf. The question that was addressed was how different cells of a plant respond to reduced oxygen availability, a situation encountered when a plant is partially or completely submerged. The study deciphered a unifi ed stress response that allows better energy management in all cell types evaluated. Each cell type also displayed a unique response signature, providing an unprecedented view of plant gene regulation and the response to an environmental stress. The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, involved a collaboration between biologists and bioinformaticists. Bailey-Serres was joined by Angelika Mustroph, M. Eugenia Zanetti, Charles J. H. Jang and Thomas Girke of UCR as well as scientists from Mendel Biotechnology, Inc (Hayward, Calif.) and the University of Arizona