Date of Award

2000

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Wan-Ling Chiu

Second Advisor

Jeff Elhani

Abstract

Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) pathways e ubiquitous ongst eukaryotes, involved in the signal transduction of various external stimuli to the nucleus. In plants, only MAPK pathways related to pathogen- and stress-related responses have been identified. It has been proposed that another MAPK pathway exists in plants, one that is similar to animal MAPK pathways and postulated to connect the regulation of cell growth and the actions of hormones auxin, cytokinin, and gibberellin. In order to establish whether a link exists between the MAPK pathway and hormone signaling in plants, the role of MAPK phosphatases (MKP) on hormone signaling was studied. Seven potential Arabidopsis MKPs were identified through database searches and through an activity assay. Sequence analysis revealed that three of these potential MKPs were probably dual specificity protein phosphateses while the specificities of the other four were unclear. Attempts were made to overexpress two of the potential MKPs in plants, however, due to errors in experimentation, this failed to work. Presently, these mistakes are being corrected so that the link between the MAPK pathway and hormone signaling in plants may be uncovered.

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