Lab Photos
The front row, left to right: Zach Larsonrabin, Laura Vaughn, Carolyn Neal
The back row, left to right: Gengxiang Jia, John Stanga, Ben Harrison, Patrick Masson
Mutants
Two of the protocols my laboratory uses to study mutants of interest are the reorientation assay and the wavy assay. Mutants affected in the ability to respond to gravity will show aberrant pheno types in either assay. Mutants with an altered response to a touch stimulus may be identified using the wavy assay.
Reorientation Assay are grown vertically for several days and then rotated 90 degrees. The root and shoot of each plant will alter their growth in order to reorient themselves along the new gravity vector . (The gravity vector is indicated by the arrow at the lower left-hand corner of each square.)
Here is a wild type seedling at the beginning and end of the reorientation assay.
Wavy Assay Seedlings are grown vertically on the surface of a 1.5% agar medium. Then, the plate is tilted 45 degrees from the vertical, and the seedlings are allowed to grow further. Under these conditions, roots develop a wavy pattern of growth [Okada].
The wavy assay phenotype of a mutant unable to properly respond to gravity is shown below. The seedlings in the top row are wild type; those in the bottom row are mutant.
Mutants showing aberrant wavy phenotypes fall into several categories. Several are shown below. (Wild type is on the far left.)
Okada, K. and Shimura, Y. (1992). Cell 70, 369-372.