Experiments were performed to assess regulatory factors governing maize
embryo maturation and vivipary. Both visual and molecular markers of embryo
development were used to examine the roles of the hormones abscisic acid (ABA)
and gibberellins (GAs), as well as water stress in governing transit from early
embryogeny to maturation-phase development....
Maize defective kernel (dek) mutants identify genes necessary for the
successful passage of embryos through the embryogenic and maturation
phases of embryo development. The goal of this thesis was to characterize the
developmental potential of three dek mutants that appeared to be
morphologically blocked prior to the maturation phase of...
Protein kinases are an abundant class of enzymes which play important roles in numerous signal transduction systems. Arabidopsis TOUSLED kinase is a serine/threonine kinase which is essential for cell-cell communication within the shoot meristem. TOUSLED is encoded by a single gene in Arabidopsis. Recessive mutants in this gene show mild...
Coproporphyrinogen III oxidase (CPX) is an enzyme involved in the biosynthesis
of tetrapyrroles, catalyzing the oxidative decarboxylation of coproporphyrinogen III to
protoporphyrinogen IX. In bacteria and yeast this enzyme is cytosolic, in animals it is
mitochondrial, and in each it functions to produce heme. However, in all plants
investigated, the...
This dissertation describes the cloning and characterization of the TOUSLEDlike kinases genes of maize (ZmTLKs). The TOUSLED-like kinases (TLKs) are a conserved family of nuclear Ser/Thr kinases in higher eukaryotes. The maize genome has three TOUSLED-like kinase genes (ZmTLK1, ZmTLK2, and ZmTLK3). Based upon sequence similarity, the ZmTLKs are divided...