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Courses:
Organisms Lab (BIO 114)
Research Interests: Organization of the plant cytoskeleton
in interphase and mitosis
In plants, the microtubule cytoskeleton has
several roles. Just like in other kinds of cells, the microtubules make
up the mitotic spindle and determine the cell’s shape during
interphase, but in plants, the orientation of the microtubules also
determines the direction in which the plant grows.
I have two main areas of interest, both concerning the microtubule
cytoskeleton in plants.
The first is: how do plant cells grow together in a co-ordinated way?
This must involve cell-to-cell communication and intercellular
organization of the cytoskeleton so that all the cells grow in the same
direction.
The second is: How different is plant mitosis from animal mitosis? The
spindles themselves look slightly different between phyla, and very few
of the molecular mechanisms are known in plants. There is evidence that
many of the same motors that are important for mitosis in animal cells
also play a role in plant mitosis, but there is still much to be
learned. Also, mitotic checkpoints are relatively unexplored in plants.
Some that are well known in animal systems could be different or absent
in plants.
I have been investigating these questions, primarily through
microscopy, with two arabidospsis mutants: rsw6, which is defective in
intercellular microtubule alignment, and rsw7, which lacks a crucial
mitotic motor protein.
Selected
Publications:
Bannigan, A., Scheible, W-R., Lukowitz, W.,
Fagerstrom, C., Wadsworth, P., Somerville, C. and Baskin, T.I. (2007) A
conserved role for kinesin-5 in plants. J. Cell Sci. 120: 2819-2827.
Bannigan, A.; Wiedemeier, A.M.D.; Williamson, R.E.; Overall, R. (2006)
Cortical Microtubule Arrays Lose Uniform Alignment between Cells and
Are Oryzalin Resistant in the Arabidopsis Mutant, radially swollen 6.
Plant & Cell Physiology 47: 949-958.
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