Date of Award

5-2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Thesis

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Benjamin Spears

Second Advisor

Shelley Etnier

Abstract

The brassinosteroid (BR) signaling pathway is vital in regulating development and stress response in plants. The hormone BR binds a receptor kinase at the plasma membrane forming a receptor complex, causing an intracellular signal transduction carried out through protein interactions within the pathway. These interactions allow for transcription factors to bind to and regulate BR regulated genes within the nuclei; this is important as their expression is important for growth and development. The project's proteins of interest, including Arabidopsis thaliana proteins OPS and BIN2, along with transcription factors TCP8 and BZR2, are involved in these pathway interactions. Recent research has identified circular clusters of TCP8 protein, known as condensates, forming in the nuclei of Nicotiana benthamiana. Creating truncation mutations that remove regions of interest in TCP8 will allow us to identify sites behind punctae formation. This project utilized a spinning disk confocal microscope and the plant hormones BRZ and SA, which deplete BR, to observe changes in OPS/BIN2 interactions within the brassinosteroid pathway and quantified the presence of truncated TCP8/BZR2 localization via nuclei punctae counts.

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