I am a GenBio major and I am graduating in the spring of 2007. I am involved in various campus organizations such as the MBSA, AASU, IVCF and TerpTV. I have also been an avid fan of the Cleveland Indians all my life. I have no idea what I want to do with myself after graduation.
The focus of my project in the Chang Lab is to shed some light on the function of RTE2 in the ethylene signaling pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana. I will analyze mutant alleles of rte2 to test whether RTE2 has redundant functions with RTE1 and to hopefully identify amino acid residues that are important for function. We have obtained various rte2 point mutants, which will be characterized through a study of the effects of these mutations on the phenotype of Arabidopsis seedlings (the triple response). I am currently working with three such mutant alleles for rte2, which result in amino acid changes in conserved residues. So far, these mutants have a wild-type phenotype. If these mutations result in changes in phenotype, however, this will identify key amino acids in the functioning of RTE2. In order to look for phenotypes associated with the loss of RTE function in the plants, and to test for redundancy with RTE1, I will be examining the rte2 alleles in the rte1 mutant background and comparing the phenotype with the rte1 and rte2 single mutants. Because the RTE gene is conserved in both plants and animals, the characterization of RTE2 and the identification of relevant amino acids in the functioning of the protein are important to understanding the overall ethylene signaling pathway and the role of RTE in that pathway. It may also lead to the identification of additional phenotypes for the RTE2 gene.
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