Source: University of California - Riverside
Date: September 6, 2007
Summary:
A plant cell biologist at UC Riverside has received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate how plant stem-cells maintain their identity and how they eventually get specialized into different cell types. According to G. Venugopala Reddy, the principal investigator of the four-year grant, the research, which will focus only on plants, has potential to lead to better insights into how stem cells communicate with each other both before and after they are transformed into specialized cells that lead to the development of different plant organs.
Specifically, Reddy, an assistant professor of plant cell biology who joined UCR’s Department of Botany and Plant Sciences last year, will utilize two powerful methods in his research: microgenomics, which will help identify which genes are active in the stem cells; and live imaging, which will allow him to monitor, in real time, how individual proteins interact in living plant cells. “This research may lead to better insights into stem-cell regulation,” Reddy said.
