Project 109: Genetic Analysis of the Arabidopsis Hippo Homolog SIK1 and SIK1-interacting Partners

Contact Information:

Prof. Qingqiu Gong

Email: gongqingqiu@sjtu.edu.cn ; gongq2@gmail.com

Project Description and Objectives:

How organ size is controlled is a fundamental question in developmental biology. In animals, the Hippo pathway restricts cell proliferation and promotes apoptosis to negatively regulate organ size. Our lab had previously characterized the Arabidopsis protein kinase SIK1 and its scaffold protein MOB1 as the Hippo-Mats signaling circuit in plants. In order to establish a complete plant Hippo/SIK1 pathway, we carried out protein-protein interaction screens with SIK1-GFP plants and obtained many candidates. The objective of this project is to verify the genetic interactions between SIK1 and some of these candidates by generating double mutants and by doing subsequent genotype and phenotype analyses. The results will contribute to our understanding of plant organ size control, development, and yield.

Eligibility Requirements:

Undergraduate student (senior) majoring in Biological Sciences.

Main Tasks:

To generate double knock-out mutants by crossing or targeted genome editing (CRISPR-Cas).

To grow the mutants and verify the double mutants by genomic PCR and RT-PCR.

To observe and document the phenotypes of the double mutants.

Website:

Lab: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Qingqiu_Gong?ev=prf_highl 

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=E1gLh-EAAAAJ&hl=en 

School: http://life.sjtu.edu.cn/