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ASGSB 2002 Annual Meeting Abstracts
[15]
OMINDIRECTIONAL CLINOROTATION - A NEW SPIN ON CLINOSTAT DESIGN. M.M. Gummere, J.E. Moses, A. Coleman,B. Cooperman, W. Darrah, P.A Rea1 and T.M. Lynch. Science Department, William Penn Charter School, Philadelphia. 1Plant Science Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Clinorotation has been used since Dodart (1703) to help elucidate the mechanisms living organisms use to detect gravity. Our new clinostat design offers an experimental platform that moves plants in three-dimensional space by randomly rotating a sphere housing experimental materials. To test the efficacy of this new device, affectionately referred to as the NotomyStat, wild type cultivars of Arabidopsis and Maize cv. Merit were clinorotated and root growth vectors were analyzed. Data from Arabidopsis cv. Columbia reveals random root growth with respect to the growth vector providing evidence that the new clinostat design was effective in simulating the microgravity environment. Maize cv. Merit was used as a control organism due to its inability to detect gravity in the absence of light. Therefore, Merit seeds clinorotated in darkness should provide the same result as those rotated in the presence of light. Further studies will be performed, using this new clinorotation instrument, to study the molecular mechanisms responsible for gravitropism.
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