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How
do plant roots sense and respond to gravity?
Cytoplasmic calcium levels imaged as a root of Arabidopsis responds
to garvity.
Changes in cytoplasmic calcium levels are thought to be part of the
signal transduction/sensory mechanism whereby roots respond to gravity.
This plant has been loaded with a fluorescent dye that reports cytoplasmic
calcium levels. The root was then imaged using confocal
microscopy to generate a map of the calcium response of the root
as it is stimulated by a change in gravity. The top image is a 'normal'
microscope image of the root, the lower image is the confocal/computer
generated image of the calcium dynamics. Because of its small size,
optical accessibility and the range of molecular tools available we
are using Arabidopsis thaliana as the plant for these studies.
We are currently applying this sort of technology to try and determine
the role of calcium, pH and other regulatory molecules in transducing
the gravity signal in roots.
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