PhD Advisor: Professor Ikram Blilou

Abstract:
Tissue patterning in plants is tightly coordinated by hormonal input together with molecular factors that act in concert in meristems located in the shoot and root. Previous work has extensively demonstrated the individual roles of transcription factors that regulate asymmetric cell division and quiescence in distinct cell types of the root apical meristem. Among these transcriptional regulators are the SHORT-ROOT (SHR), SCARECROW (SCR), JACKDAW (JKD) and RETINOBLASTOMA-RELATED (RBR) proteins. Recent studies have revealed that SHR, SCR and JKD form a higher-order protein complex and determined the cell type-specificity of pairwise interactions between these proteins in the root apical meristem. However, the interactions between RBR and members of the SHR-SCR-JKD complex remain uncharacterized. Here, we expand the protein-protein interaction map to include RBR using in vivo FRET-FLIM microscopy in the Arabidopsis root meristem. In addition, we characterize the effect of auxin on mediating the interactions between SHR-SCR-JKD. From these assays, we demonstrate the relevance of cell type-specific protein-protein interactions in controlling transcriptional output, cell division and (re)patterning of root tissues. In a separate project, we characterized the function of individual zinc-finger structural motifs in the JKD transcription factor in regulating tissue patterning and meristem maintenance in the root.

Bio:
Pepijn Bais is a PhD candidate from the Netherlands pursuing his PhD studies in the laboratory of Professor Ikram Blilou. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Leiden University, the Netherlands. Afterwards, Pepijn specialized himself in plant biology by enrolling in the Plant Biotechnology Master’s programme at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Upon completion of his MSc studies, Pepijn joined the lab of Professor Ikram Blilou at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). His research focuses on plant root development in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. In his work, the interactions between transcriptional regulators involved in radial tissue patterning in the root are analyzed in a cell type-specific manner using FRET-FLIM microscopy.