Interested Members of the University Community are invited to attend the Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Master of Science of Delaney Bray-Stone of the Department of Plant Agriculture.

Date:  Monday, October 21, 2019
Time: 2 pm
Location:  Room 337, Alexander Hall Building

Thesis Title: Cell-Penetrating Peptides for the Delivery of Morphogenic Biomolecules into Plant Cells

Advisory Committee
Dr. Max Jones, Advisor
Dr. David Wolyn
Dr. Jaideep Mathur

Examination Committee
Dr. Katerina Jordan, Chair
Dr. Max Jones
Dr. David Wolyn
Dr. Jay Subramanian                            

Plants are sessile organisms that rely on totipotent cells for developmental plasticity in response to environmental changes. Cell identity and fate is mainly controlled by interactions between transcription factors and plant growth regulators. Tissue culture conventionally relies on exogenous growth regulators for control of cell development, however numerous species and genotypes cannot be cultured through this approach. Many tissues become responsive, however, through ectopic expression of transcription factors. Methods allowing for transient expression of genes for these factors could enable regeneration of recalcitrant plant tissue cultures. The use of cell-penetrating peptides for delivery of plasmids encoding for morphogenic transcription factors into plant cells was investigated, and was found to be ineffective. The development of binary constructs with morphogenic transcription factors under the control of an inducible expression system is also described, which may be useful in future efforts to improve explant regeneration with problematic species.