Christopher A. Cullis, PhD
Frances Hobart Herrick Professor of Biology
Research Interests
Dr. Cullis is interested in the mechanisms by which DNA within the cell can change rapidly, particularly in response to external stimuli. The model systems, all plant based, that are the basis for these investigations are the heritable mutations in flax in response to the external environment and the appearance somaclonal mutations after plants have been taken through a cycle of tissue culture and regeneration.
Flax has been shown to be especially prone to genomic destabilization by the external growing environment. Specific labile regions of the genome have been identified, using genomic subtraction methods, and their characteristics are being described to gain an insight into the mechanisms by which these variants are generated. One particular labile region involves the site-specific insertion of a novel sequence that is assembled in response to the environmental growth conditions, and confers an adaptive advantage under certain growth conditions.
The understanding of somaclonal variation has two purposes:
- To determine if a labuile subset of the genome is also identifiable that is modified during tissue culture.
- To develop markers to monitor the appearance of somaclonal variants to be used in the tissue culture industry for quality control of in vitro plants.
|
