BBMB Faculty Candidate Seminar

May 17, 2007
1414 Molecular Biology Buidling
4:10 p.m.

Dr. Samuel Hazen
Department of Biochemistry
The Scripps Research Institute

Transcriptional regulation of plant circadian rhythms and cell wall biosynthesis

Organisms have evolved to coordinate their activities with the day-night cycle caused by the Earth's rotation with an internal mechanism known as the circadian clock. The present talk will focus on the identification and characterization of lux arrhythmo, a Myb transcription factor identified from screen of a mutagenized Arabidopsis reporter line and genetically mapped by bulk segregant analysis with high-density oligonucleotide arrays. LUX ARRHYTHMO is part of the core clock oscillator and is essential for the activation of morning expressed genes.

Plant cell walls hold great promise as a feedstock for biofuel production and the circadian clock in part controls cell growth and wall deposition. The exact composition of cell walls strongly influences energy recovery rates; therefore, understanding and manipulating the transcriptional control of cell wall biosynthesis will likely lead to improvements of feedstock conversion rates. I will discuss the approaches to understand cell wall biosynthesis and biomass yield using Arabidopsis, the feedstock crop Miscanthus x giganteus, and a new model system for biofuel research in temperate grasses, Brachypodium distachyon.