# Receptor kinase signal integration in stem cell maintenance

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2020 · $374,649

## Abstract

Project Summary
 The long term goal of the proposed research is to decipher how cell to cell signaling networks control stem
cell maintenance. Because stem cell activity is critical to human development, and a current goal of the field is
to harness the properties of stem cells for disease treatment, an understanding of the molecular networks
controlling stem cell function is critical for diverse public health challenges. We have chosen a highly tractable
model plant system, Arabidopsis thaliana, to take a multi-level approach to dissect the receptor kinase
pathways that control shoot stem cell proliferation. Arabidopsis is easy to transform, mutagenize, and there is a
wealth of mutants and transgenic lines that affect stem cell function, all acquired during decades of study. In
addition, the stem cell niche in the shoot is easily visualized, allowing living stem cells to be imaged at cellular
and sub-cellular levels.
 The proposal will support a series of projects that collectively aim to comprehensively understand the
function of receptor signaling in stem cell regulation. The projects will identify the transcriptional regulators that
act downstream of receptor activation, tie their function to signaling cascades, and identify the suite of
transcriptional outputs they regulate. The proposal will also define the mechanism of receptor activation and
complex formation at the plasma membrane and elucidate the signaling components that act as intermediates
through a combination of novel genetic and biochemistry approaches. The project will assess how stem cell
network components have diversified and been co-opted into new developmental modules outside of the shoot
stem cell niche. Lastly, the project will take a broad evolutionary approach to assess how stem cell networks
have been altered by evolution and domestication to shape form and function. The project will last five years,
but will impact the direction of the lab beyond the scope of the proposed research. The projects will train
scientists at the post-doctoral, graduate and undergraduate levels. This work will benefit from collaboration with
several expert groups using different model systems with the aim of amplifying and diversifying data sets, and
exchanging skill sets. Ultimately, the projects aim to define network architecture and specificity at a level that
allows the creation of synthetic pathways with the potential to alter plant growth and be deployed in
heterologous systems, potentially including therapeutic applications.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9944647
- **Project number:** 5R35GM119614-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Zachary Luke Nimchuk
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $374,649
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-08-04 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9944647

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9944647, Receptor kinase signal integration in stem cell maintenance (5R35GM119614-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9944647. Licensed CC0.

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