Page 21 - Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Proceedings 2017-18

School of Science
Division of Life Science

Proteomics Approach to Decipher Gravity Signaling in a Flowering Model Plant

Supervisor: LI Ning / LIFS
Student: KO Cheuk Kei / BCB Course: UROP3100, Fall
UROP4100, Spring

In this project, we aim to identify genes that are responsible to touch sensing in Arabidopsis thaliana (Col-0). A set of 4
Arabidopsis genes which exhibited signalling potential were selected. Seeds of tDNA insertion lines targeting these 4
genes were bought from ABRC. The first part of the project was to select for homozygous pure line seeds from each
tDNA insertional mutagenesis. Pure line plants were obtained from 2 out of 4 mutants. Seeds from these plants were
collected and stored. Next semester, it is hoped that force physiological experiments can be done to study the
thigmomorphogenetic properties of these mutants.

Supervisor: LI Ning / LIFS
Student: LEUNG Yui Him / BIOT Course: UROP1100, Spring

It is known that ethylene can serve as a plant hormone which is responsible for the growth and development of plant,
such as regulating the process of fruit ripening and germination of seeds. Previous studies showed that when seedlings
were put to germinate in the darkness with exogenous ethylene administered, it would alter the phenotype of seedlings.
The resulted phenotype was termed as triple response with characteristics of relatively shorter and thicker hypocotyls,
larger hooks and shorter roots. In this experiment, the triple response in soybean and Arabidopsis were shown to be
confirmed with previous studies as there was a significant difference in the length of hypocotyls under exogenous
ethylene treatment and under normal air condition.

Supervisor: LI Ning / LIFS
Student: RICE Keira Lee / BIOT Course: UROP2100, Fall

Mechanosensory stimuli has been known to trigger a range of responses in plants on both the transcriptional and
proteomic level. In nature, these stimuli have pronounced phenotypic consequences that help plants adapt to an ever-
changing environment. As touch sensitivity is crucial for the overall survivability of all organisms, the identity of these
mechanosensory receptors are intriguing from an evolutionary and pathological perspective. Although more is known
about the downstream signalling pathways following touch stimuli, the primary mechanosensitive element of touch has
yet to be identified. Touch assays on TDNA insertional mutants of putative touch candidates will help to uncover these
receptors. In addition to phenotypic assays, experiments to characterize the genetic identity of mutants using PCR with
custom primers are required to verify putative touch mutants. This report is part of an ongoing project to characterize
the primary element of touch in A. thaliana, which will hopefully contribute to our current understanding of conserved
pathways in other high eukaryotes and humans.

Mechanisms of Lung Cancer Metastasis

Supervisor: LIANG Chun / LIFS
Student: CHEN Zhuojian / BCB Course: UROP1100, Fall

MicroRNA (miRNA) is a type of non-coding RNA which can regulate gene expression in cell. One of function of miRNA is
binding messenger RNA and cause them degradation or inhibiting translation. The effect depends on the bases’
similarity between miRNA and the target mRNA. MiRNA-370-3p and miRNA-495-3p have been observed that they have
negative effect on MCM2, MCM6 and CDC6 expression. MCM2 and MCM6 are the primary control factors of eukaryotes

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