Katy is working on mapping a mutation that was pulled out of an EMS mutagenesis screen. The screen was carried out to look for mutants having defective root hairs and/or show loss of the tip localization of EYFP-RabA4b. Of the 1500 M1 plants, seven temperature sensitive mutants were pulled out. The 321-b mutant is one of these seven and grows root hairs normally at 20 but when moved to 30 , fails to form new root hairs and the root hairs that have already developed stop growing.
As of the end of April 2007, the site of the mutation has been narrowed down to around 90 gene candidates. She is working on testing more mapping markers on both sides of this stretch of DNA, and is simultaneously looking at the candidates among these genes.
