9313805 Roux This award supports Professor Stanley J. Roux of the University of Texas at Austin and Dr. Gregory Clark, a postdoctoral associate, to collaborate in developmental botany research with Professor Richard E. Kendrick of the Department of Plant Physiology, Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands. The objective of their research is to gain a better understanding of the cause of the light-induced increase in the nuclear number among pea cells, a phenomenon which was recently discovered by Professor Roux and Dr. Clark. Together with Professor Kendrick and others at his institution, they are taking a multidisciplinary approach to studying the biochemical basis for the postulated role of the pigment phytochrome in the stimulation of mitosis. In particular, they are exploring whether this role is mediated through GTP-binding proteins. Their research depends on the complementary expertise of the two groups. Dr. Kendrick is a world leader in the physiological and photobiological aspects of phytochrome research and a pioneer on studies of G-protein mediation of phytochrome responses. Others in his institution will contribute expertise in the cytological and morphological aspects of plant development. Dr. Roux has worked extensively on biochemical aspects of phytochrome, and is an expert on enzymes regulated by phytochrome. This research tests the important question of whether phytochrome can regulate mitosis and whether this regulation requires the mediation of GTP-binding proteins. Verification of this influence will help explain the dramatic effects of phytochrome on pea plumule development and will represent a critically important addition to the impressive list of events controlled by phytochrome during photomorphogenesis. Verification of a role for GTP-binding proteins as mediators would be an equally important finding, not only for plant sciences but for cell biology in general, for almost nothing is known about the regulation of GTP -binding proteins in nuclei. ***
