How Is the Shoot Apical Meristem Organized and Maintained in Zea mays?
Sihui Ni, Ph.D. Student
Under the direction of Drs. Wusheng Liu and Craig Yencho
Monday, April 27, 2020, at 3:00 pm
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Abstract
The shoot apical meristem (SAM) is a cluster of pluripotent stem cells that give rise to all of the above-ground plant tissues. The SAM is well studied in eudicots such as Arabidopsis, where the classical WUSCHEL (WUS)-CLAVATA (CLV) negative feedback loop was discovered and shown to maintain the identity and quiescence of the SAM stem cells residing above the organizing center. In contrast, limited research has been conducted on SAMs in monocots including the economically important cereals. Despite an apparent association between monocot meristem size and yield, very little is known about SAM development and stem cell maintenance in monocots. In particular, the distinct expression profiles and mutant phenotypes of WUS and CLV orthologs suggest that the functions of these proteins are not well conserved from dicots to monocots. It remains unclear how one should define the organizing center in monocot SAMs and whether the classical dicot WUS-CLV model is appropriate to apply to monocots. In this seminar, I will outline my Ph.D. research proposal, in which we will use maize as a model organism to study the ontogeny of monocot SAMs. We will quantify mitotic rates of the different SAM domains and pinpoint the signaling proteins maintaining cell proliferation in maize SAMs. Discoveries from this research will help enable a better understanding of SAM development in monocots, which could potentially be used to improve yield in cereal crops.