What can unusual leaf shapes reveal about the rules of organ growth?
Ever wondered why different organs are shaped differently? What decides that? And we all know precise organ shapes are very important, otherwise, organs would malfunction, whether it’s plants or animals.
For most plants, leaves are extremely crucial organs. As such, leaf shape influences how efficiently they can capture light, exchange water and gases, and withstand environmental stress. Identifying the basic principles that determine lead morphology is important for not just understanding how plants develop, but also how plants adapt to their environment and how they cope with changing environmental conditions.
The Yadav lab investigates how genes, cell growth properties and physical interactions among cells work together to determine organ shape and form. In our lab, the organ of interest is plant leaf. We are seeking undergraduate researchers to help us identify how different genes influence material properties of the leaf, and thereby leaf shape, as well as the underlying mechanisms involved using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.
Students will grow mutants with fluorescent reporter lines and help establish stable lines. The students will also grow mutant lines, be involved in genotyping them, and create new transgenic lines. As time permits, the students will also be screening mutants, looking for changes in leaf curvature, symmetry, margins, or other unusual features. The students will also be involved in creating transgenic plants that carry a fluorescent cell membrane marker in selected mutant backgrounds. This marker will allow us to not only determine the morphology of individual cells but also how they grow and divide over time.
The project is well suited for students interested in genetics, developmental biology, microscopy, quantitative biology, or simply in learning how cool discoveries are often made from careful observation. Students will begin with tissue culture and carefully growing Arabidopsis thaliana plants. As they gain experience, students may progress to confocal microscopy, quantitative image analysis, genetics and independent investigation of how the mutants alter the material properties of the leaf.
This is an opportunity to explore a fundamental question in biology: How do individual cells work together to produce organ shapes? Students will gain hands-on experience in plant genetics, molecular biology, microscopy and computational image analysis. Students will also be using Convoluted Neural Networks (CNN) based deep learning to process confocal microscopy images and extract quantitative information about cell growth and tissue organization. This provides an exciting opportunity to work at the intersection of genetics, developmental biology, biophysics, and AI-assisted image processing.
Beyond learning experimental techniques, the students will develop skills in critical observation, critical thinking, experimental design and data interpretation. As they gain experience, and demonstrate scientific aptitude, students will have opportunities to take ownership of specific research questions and present their work in scientific meetings.
This experience will provide a strong foundation for students considering graduate school or careers in biological research, biotechnology, plant and animal science research, and related fields. Much of what we study involves very high-end, niche techniques, which will help individuals be competitive in a wide range of careers.