Home Department: Physics
Mentor: Jose Dinneny (Biology)

"Engineering Genetically Encoded Ethylene Receptors in Plants"

Ethylene is the first gaseous hormone discovered and regulates growth and environmental responses in plants. Although the molecular components of ethylene signaling are well defined, resolving its dynamics in tissues is challenging due to its gaseous nature and lack of noninvasive reporters. John will use two approaches to build genetically-encoded ethylene reporters and test their efficacy in Arabidopsis thaliana. First, he’ll test whether an existing synthetic transcriptional reporter can be used to track ethylene response in roots exposed to a moisture bias. In parallel, he’ll design a fluorescence reporter of ethylene binding using structural data of the ethylene receptor ETR1.