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(c) THE ROLE OF CELL CYCLE DYNAMICS IN THE SPECIFICATION OF CELL FATE DURING STOMATAL PATTERNING The relatively simple epidermis of Arabidopsis thaliana provides an ideal system for studying cell differentiation and pattern formation in plants, since it hosts a limited number of specialised cell types, including stomata.
Stomatal complexes are multicellular structures that consist of a pair of guard cells surrounding a pore, together with a small variable number of subsidiary cells. Their role in regulating gas and water exchange with the atmosphere makes them critically important for photosynthesis and thus productivity.
Stomata are emerging as an important system for studying plant cell patterning because of the involvement of key processes such as asymmetric cell divisions that influence stomatal spacing and the specification of cell fate. How and when particular cells are selected as the precursors to stomata, what contributes to the patterning of these precursors within the epidermis, and how cells of the stomatal complex acquire their particular fates are important unresolved questions.
We are using GAL4 transactivation to perturb the cell cycle in specific cell types within the developing epidermis. This allows us to determine the effects of altered patterns and domains of cell division on stomatal density and distribution, providing an opportunity to investigate the hypothesis that cell cycle dynamics are important in cell fate specification during stomatal patterning. Current funding
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