Due to its unique life cycle and relatively simple and non-redundant genome, the liverworth Marchantia polymorpha is an emerging model system for developing and testing plant synthetic biology applications. In addition, the exceptional ease with which Marchantia initiates meristems at cutting sites and regenerates into whole plants makes this species an excellent object to study the molecular mechanisms underlying regeneration. This project is focusing on the Lin28 pathway that has been previously shown to play a crucial role in the regeneration of animal systems.
In the course of the project student will acquire skills in sterile work-tissue culture techniques (vegetative propagation of Marchantia, induction of gametophyte formation and the reproductive life cycle, spore formation), molecular cloning and transformation (creating constructs for tissue-specific expression of marker genes, CRISPR/Cas9 editing, etc.), various microscopy techniques (to assess marker gene expression, immunolabeling of target proteins, etc.) as well as proteomics (to study the interactome of the Marchantia Lin28 protein).
Supervisor: Laszlo Bako, Dept of Plant Physiology, UmU
Tel.: 786 7970. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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