Abstract. In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (mouse-ear cress), the root hair cells of the root epidermis are arranged in a longitudinal striped pattern. Some of these epidermis cells are hair cells and some develop as non-hair-bearing epidermal cells. Adjacent epidermal cells are continuously communicating with each other through regulatory genes and determine which epidermis cells express root hairs and which do not. This communication between the adjacent epidermis cells gives the cells this regular root hair pattern. Myosin act as motors in the cell and move the organelles and protein complexes inside of the cell.
Myosin mutants have more root hairs and it is because they form extra root hairs on the non hair cells epidermis. The WER (werewolf), GL2 (glabra 2), and EGL3 (enhancer of glabra 3) genes control cell patterning in the arabidopsis root epidermis. In the lab expression patterns of these genes were observed in root tips of myosin mutants and wild type.
With a combination of genetic and morphological approaches, my research addressed two questions of how two myosin mutants affect the specific patterning of the root hairs and also how they affect the gene expressions of regulatory genes WER, GL2, and EGL3. In a broad perspective my research helped with the understanding of how intracellular transport in a cell affects the intercellular communication in Arabidopsis. And the staining of the reporter gene in this experiment revealed the cells that expressed these regulatory genes