Chemicals modifying plant development are commonly used to characterize the molecular basis of plant growth. In collaboration with the Laboratories for Chemical Biology Umeå (LCBU), Thomas Vain from Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC) has identified novel compounds that control plant development. He also contributed to develop workflows for processing digital images to quantify relevant biological information from these images. Thomas Vain will defend his PhD thesis at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science on Friday, the 25th of November 2016.
Thomas Vain and his colleagues from LCBU, Umeå University, have screened about 8000 different compounds on their effects on plant development using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Their special focus was on compounds that alter how plants perceive auxin, a phytohormone broadly regulating plant development. The identified molecules are useful tools to study fundamental aspects of plant development and might lead to the design of more specific agrochemicals.
A. thaliana seedlings and the chemical structure of the phytohormone auxin
A. thaliana seedlings and the chemical structure of the phytohormone auxinA chemical biology screen like the one performed by Thomas Vain and his colleagues consist normally of several steps. In the first round, a large amount of compounds was tested and the most effective compounds were selected. These compounds were characterised further using different, more specific approaches to understand their mode of action. They ended up with several interesting compounds that affect the auxin signalling pathway, which effects unravel in detail auxin perception and response.
Thomas Vain and his colleagues from the UPSC went even further. They chose one of their most affective compounds and performed a genetic screen with it. They used a population of randomly mutagenized Arabidopsis seedlings and screened for mutants that were resistant to the selected compound. The mutation in the resistant mutants will tell the researchers more about possible mediators of the effect of the selected compound. This will increase the understanding about how auxin is perceived and how responses to auxin are regulated.
Another part of Thomas Vain’s thesis focussed on digital image processing. More and more digital images are generated in biology but they might be difficult to interpret. A fast and efficient image processing helps to quantitatively extract relevant biological information while removing all irrelevant information. Thomas Vain contributed to several projects by developing digital image processing workflows going from cell and leaf shape analysis to protein colocalization quantification.
Example for a digital image processing workflow: Cyan and Magenta represent the signal of two different labelled proteins. The upper image shows the more noisy, unprocessed image. After processing (lower image) the signal is segmented to obtain quantitative informations. Text: Thomas Vain, Anne Honsel
Photos: Thomas Vain
Photos: Thomas Vain
Link to the digital publication of the thesis:
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-e-3753
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-e-3753
For more information, please contact:
Thomas Vain
Department of Plant Physiology and Forest Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Phone: +46(0)90786 8280
email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Thomas Vain
Department of Plant Physiology and Forest Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Phone: +46(0)90786 8280
email:
Information about the public defence of the dissertation:
On Friday 25 November, Thomas Vain, Department of Plant Physiology and Forest Genetics, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Umeå University, will defended his dissertation entitled:
Chemical Biology and Digital Image Processing to unravel complex molecular mechanism in Arabidopsis.
Faculty opponent will be Dolf Weijers from Wageningen University, Netherlands. Supervisor is Stéphanie Robert.
On Friday 25 November, Thomas Vain, Department of Plant Physiology and Forest Genetics, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Umeå University, will defended his dissertation entitled:
Chemical Biology and Digital Image Processing to unravel complex molecular mechanism in Arabidopsis.
Faculty opponent will be Dolf Weijers from Wageningen University, Netherlands. Supervisor is Stéphanie Robert.