Dr. Lynes proposes to develop sensitive and specific polyvalent antiserum and monoclonal antibody probes to several plant plasma membrane componments, and to use these probes to analyze those components. He proposes to investigate the tissue and species distribution of each component, and to purify these components for biochemical analysis. Two specific components of the plant cell, the fusicoccin receptor molecule and the auxin binding molecule, will be analyzed and isolated using anti-idiotypic antibodies. Other components of the plasma membrane will be analyzed using antibodies generated from immunizations with relatively crude membrane isolates. Once antibodies against the receptor molecules or other membrane constituents have been induced in the immunized animals, their reactivity will be assessed with a number of immunological assays, and then the specific immunoglobulins will be purified. These antibodies can then be employed in affinity purifications of components of the plasma membrane that should prove to be exceptionally fast and efficient, surmounting problems encountered with previously devised techniques for the purification of membrane constituents. An analysis of the developmental patterns of expression of plasma membrane associated structures made possible with the tools developed in this project, will yield insights into the genetic regulation of those traits, and the differentiation patterns of the cells that express those traits.
