Ongoing Research on Silencing of Individual Genes
Current studies are being done to determine the mechanism of gene silencing for genes whose expression and silencing is reciprocal in different organs. We are interested in what mechanism(s) causes one organ to express the "A" homoeolog, while another organ expresses only the "D" homoeolog. We are exploring how combining different parental genomes affects expression and silencing of homoeologous gene pairs, using a set of synthetic cotton polyploids formed from different parents. In other current projects we are examining how expression and silencing of homoeologous gene pairs changes during the development of cotton ovules and fibers, and further exploring organ-specific patterns of gene silencing by finer scale studies.
