30th Annual Student Research Conference
Role of the FUL1 Gene in Desert Tobacco Dry Fruit Development
Ashley R. Henry
Dr. Elisabeth A. Hooper and Dr. Amy Litt (University of California, Riverside), Faculty Mentors
The nightshade family (Solanaceae) is composed of basal lineages with dry fruits and derived lineages with fleshy fruits. Little is known about the evolutionary development of dry versus fleshy fruits. Research on Arabidopsis dry fruits has discovered that the FRUITFULL gene regulates patterns of lignification, an essential step in dry fruit development. FRUITFULL has four orthologs in Solanaceae: FUL1, FUL2, MBP10, and MBP20. Our goal was to explore the role of FUL1 in fruit development in desert tobacco, Nicotiana obtusifolia. We sectioned and stained fruits at multiple developmental stages and extracted and sequenced RNA to study the transcriptome. We annotated and aligned the transcriptome to the desert tobacco genome to locate the FRUITFULL orthologs and extrapolate their expression levels at anthesis and fertilization. This study provides baseline data on gene expression during dry fruit development and will shed light on the evolutionary transition from dry to fleshy fruit in Solanaceae.
Keywords: Nicotiana obtusifolia, dry fruit development, FRUITFULL, nightshade family
Topic(s):Biology
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 205-2
Location: MG 2001
Time: 9:45