Transcriptome analysis of new molecules that activate F-box-LRR signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana

Plant hormones are essential for all aspects of growth, development and defense. In the recent years exciting new hormones and other small signalling compounds have been identified in plants such as strigolactones regulating shoot branching and seed germination promoting karrikins. Also, for many hormones (multiple) receptors have been recently identified. For auxin, picloram and jasmonates, receptors are members of the F-box-LRR protein family. This receptor family contains at least 23 members in Arabidopsis, suggesting that other members may bind yet undiscovered plant hormones and regulate their signaling pathways. In collaboration with the research group of Prof. Dr. Stephanie Robert at the Umeå Plant Science Center, Sweden, we identified new molecules from a chemical library that activate uncharacterized F-box-LRR pathways. The requested budget here will be used to perform a transcriptome analysis on the top lead molecule in order to get insight in the processes that it controls. This research may lead to the opening of an entire new field in plant physiology as has been illustrated with the discovery of strigolactones.