Speaker — Ross Sozzani, Associate Professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at North Carolina State University

Title — Gene regulatory networks controlling root stem cells

Abstract — The stem cells in the tip of the Arabidopsis root form all the root tissues by undergoing rounds of coordinated cell division while maintaining their undifferentiated state. A better understanding of the transcription factors that maintain the stem cells and control each stem cell’s identity would give us more insight into how the growth and development of the root is initiated. While a number of transcription factors involved in root stem cell maintenance have been described, a comprehensive view of the transcriptional signature of the stem cells is lacking. We have generated a model of the transcriptional mechanisms underlying the identity and maintenance of the Arabidopsis root stem cells that links known and newly predicted factors involved in these processes. This model led to a map of genetic interactions that orchestrate the transcriptional regulation of stem cells. 

Support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (CAREER MCB 1453130) and bilaterally by the NSF and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (NSF MCB-1517058)

Host — Dior Kelley