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1st Student's Major

Chemistry and Geology

1st Student's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Students' Professional Biography

Samee Ranginwala joined Minnesota State University, Mankato in the Fall of 2006. He is pursuing a BS in Biochemistry and Human Biology. Samee began his research in the spring of 2009 under the guidance of Dr. James Rife and Dr. Terry Salerno the Department of Chemistry and Geology. His focus was mainly on the biochemical basis of plant defence mechanisms. Samee presented his research at the 11th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference at Minnesota State University. Upon graduating, Samee plans to pursue medicine.

Mentor's Name

James Rife

Mentor's Email Address

james.rife@mnsu.edu

Mentor's Department

Chemistry and Geology

Mentor's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Abstract

Fatty Acid 9/13-Hydroperoxide Lyase (9/13-HPL) in the cucumber plant is an enzyme that cleaves either 9- or 13-hydroperoxides of polyunsaturated fatty acids to form volatile C9 or C6 aldehydes respectively. Since these aldehydes may play a role in the plant’s defenses against pathogens (K. Matsui, et. al. Phytochemistry 67 (2006) 649-657), the enzyme is stress induced during vulnerable times such as when the plant is injured. In order to better understand how this enzyme is induced, we have developed a Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction method to quantitate levels of 9/13-HPL mRNA. In initial experiments, the effect of mechanical wounding of cucumber cotyledons on the transcription levels of the 9/13-HPL gene in wounded tissue and unwounded leaves was examined. The RNeasy Plant Minikit from Qiagen was used to isolate mRNA from the plant tissue and SYBR Green was used as the detection system for Real Time PCR.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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