What is the function of salt-responsive gene products in roots?
This research is currently focused on two groups of genes in tomato and Arabidopsis. The first gene family encodes α-dioxygenase-like enzymes that are implicated in generating fatty acid-derived signals due to their ability to catalyse the production of novel fatty acid hydroperoxides and hydroxy-fatty acids. The second gene family encodes polypeptides with similarity to the Radical-induced Cell Death-1 Arabidopsis protein that belongs to a novel sub-family of proteins involved in ADP-ribose conjugation and protein-protein interactions mediated by a WWE domain. Mutations in RCD-1 confer an ozone-sensitive phenotype implying a role in protection against ozone-derived oxidative damage and lesion propagation.
