CEPCEB Members

Venugopala Reddy Gonehal Assistant Professor of Cell Biology Department of Botany and Plant Sciences 2150 Batchelor Hall University of California Riverside, California 92521 phone: (951) 827-3482 Fax: (951) 827-4437   Areas of Expertise Gene Network Live Imaging Stem Cells Development Functional Genomics
Background Current Projects Current Lab Members Selected Publications (Bibliography page)

Background

Venugopala Reddy Gonehal received his doctorate degree from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India, in 1999, where he studied mechanisms of sibling cell fate specification in Drosophila. In 1999, he received Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research Foundation post doctoral fellowship to pursue research at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA, where he co-developed live-imaging method to study the dynamics in the shoot apex of Arabidopsis. In 2006, he became assistant professor of Cell Biology in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, USA, where he focuses on studying the dynamics of stem-cell maintenance in the shoot apex of Arabidopsis.

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Current Projects

The Reddy Lab is interested in exploring the molecular and cellular basis of cell identity transition. The process of cell identity transition involves conversion of transient temporal signals into stable genetic circuits that involve feed-forward and feedback control of gene activation. Therefore, we employ dynamic methods of transient perturbations, in cell-cell communication, followed by cell-type specific genomics and live-imaging to obtain a dynamic view of molecular and cellular architecture that dictate cell identity transitions.

Structure of stem-cell niche highlighted by fluorescent reporter constructs. (A), (B) and (D) are the 3-D re-constructed views of shoot apical meristems (SAMs), highlighting the stem-cell domain (A), the stem-cell daughters begin to differentiate in the peripheral zone (PZ) (B and D) and also within the Rib-meristem (RM) (C). (E-G) are the re-constructed side views of SAMs represented in (A-C) respectively, revealing 3 clonal layers of cells (E,F) and RM (G).  Cell outlines are highlighted by FM4-64 dye (red).

The shoot apical meristem stem-cell niche provides an ideal developmental gradient to explore the meaning of transient cell identity at molecular, cellular and tissue level.  The SAM stem-cell niche of Arabidopsis thaliana is a dynamic structure consisting of distinct cell types which exhibit specific gene activities and cellular behaviors. The central zone (CZ) hosts a set of stem-cells. Progeny of stem-cells differentiate within the surrounding peripheral zone (PZ). The CZ also supplies cells to the rib-meristem (RM) region located beneath the CZ where cells differentiate and become part of the stem. The dynamic analysis of SAM stem-cell niche might provide clues to the regulation of molecular code that defines stem-cell identity and also the regulation of cell identity transition in general.
Our work focuses on two main areas:

• Defining the molecular code and its regulation, at genome scale, for distinct cell types of the SAM stem-cell niche.  We are employing various methods of enrichment of specific cell types and genomic technologies to achieve this goal.
• Transforming the molecular code into spatial maps representing functional interactions within living SAMs by utilizing dynamic live-imaging methods.

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Current Lab Members

• Dr. Zhenhua Ding, Postdoctoral fellow
• Dr. Ram-Kishore Yadav, Postdoctoral fellow
• Ms. Nayana Hegde, Junior Specialist

Collaborators:

• Dr. Thomas Girke, Assistant Prof, Dept. of Botany and Plant Sciences
• Dr. Amit K. Roy-Chowdhury, Assistant Prof, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering

We welcome applications from Graduate students and Undergraduate students to carry out research related to the activities outlined above. Details of specific projects can be obtained by writing to the address at the top of this page.

Selected Publications (Bibliography page)

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