Self-organising carbon nanosensors for imaging morphogenic gradients in plants Structural and functional characterization of the major auxin uptake carrier AUX1 protein (Chitra Joshi) Research Projects CENTA Doctoral Training Partnership (led by Birmingham)īBSRC Mid-range Equipment ALERT 2021 Application - November 2021 In combination with the nanoparticle work, we are interested in developing novel biosensors for plant hormones, and we have been using enzyme electrochemistry and DNA aptamers to recognise the hormone in these sensors. Principally, we are interested in nanoparticles and determining whether or not polymers with particular characteristics (size, charge etc) can pass into plants and how we may use this information to design nanoparticles to carry very specific payloads to benefit crop performance, or to design nanoparticles which are specifically excluded from plants. The Napier group also has research interests in next generation plastics and agriculture. We are interested in how and why different members of the receptor family show preferences for different auxin mimics and this is important in agriculture because synthetic auxins are vitally important selective herbicides. We purify members of the auxin receptor family of proteins in the lab and use these in experiments to measure binding using advanced instruments like Biacore SPR (surface plasmon resonance). Millions of similar, but different small organic molecules cause no reaction at all, whilst the natural hormone molecule (known as indole-3-acetic acid, IAA) fits into its binding pocket perfectly. As biochemists, we are fascinated by how specificity is conferred for auxin. Our primary interest is in how the plant hormone auxin works because its actions are the foundations for most of the green plant world.
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