Mayuko Ikehara is a UBRP student working in Dr. Ramin Yadegari's research group in the department of Plant Sciences and Molecular and Cellular Biology. The Yadegari group studies the development of female gametophyte. A female gametophyte is a structure in which an egg cell resides.

A functional female gametophyte nourishes the egg cell and insures that the egg cell is properly fertilized to form a zygote, the first cell that grows into a whole plant. A problem in female gametophyte development may lead to failure in fertilization or seed abortion. Dr. Yadegari and his colleagues are trying to understand female gametophyte development at both structural and molecular levels. In their research they use a small flowering plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Arabidopsis is a member of mustard (Brassicaceae) family, which includes cultivated species such as cabbage and radish. Although not of major agronomic significance, Arabidopsis offers important advantages for basic research in genetics and molecular biology and has been widely used as a model organism.

Female gametophyte, also referred as the embryo sac, develops within the ovule, which is lined up inside of ovary in the flower part of the Arabidopsis plant. The plant life cycle starts when pollen reaches the stigma and fertilization takes place. After fertilization, female gametophyte develops into sporophyte and seed formation begins.

In collaboration with Dr. Gary Drew's research group in the University of Utah and Dr. Karen Schumaker's research group in the University of Arizona, the Yadegari group tries to identify all the critical genes required for female gametophyte development. For this purpose high-through technologies are employed such as DNA microarray and real-time PCR to find candidate genes. Once the target genes are identified, further gene functions area studied using various kinds of analyses, which involve genetics, molecular biology and biochemistry. So far, exciting progress has been made! The next step is to understand the biological function necessary for female gametophyte development.

Mutants, in this case an Arabidopsis plant with a deficient structure, are used to study the biological function. Mutants are commonly used for variety of biological researches. The researchers order the mutants of their target gene from The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR), http://www.arabidopsis.org/, an Internet service offered by the Ohio State University for collection and distribution of seed and DNA resources of Arabidopsis plant. Alternatively mutants are sometimes purchased from other worldwide labs to analyze the difference in female gametophyte growth.

Dr. Yadegari's group is using two popular techniques, miRNA and siRNA, to make new mutants for further analysis. National Science Foundation (NSF), as part of the 2010 Project, funds a part of Dr. Yadegari's research. The goal of this project is to understand the gene regulatory networks in entire Arabidopsis thaliana by the year of 2010. The Yadegari lab's goal is to understand the process of female gametophyte development.

For more information on this project, visit: http://ag.arizona.edu/fg2010/cgi-bin/2010Home.cgi and to learn more about Mayuko's part in this project, come to the 19th annual UBRP Conference, January 26, 2008 and visit her at her poster!