Richa Yeshvekar
- Email: bsrky@leeds.ac.uk
- Thesis title: Duplicated SEPALLATA transcription factors confer robustness on flower development in Arabidopsis thaliana
- Supervisor: Professor Brendan Davies, Prof. Peter Meyer
Profile
MSc/MTech in Biotechnology (University of Pune)
Netaji Subhas Indian Council for Agricultural Research (NS-ICAR) International PhD Fellow
Research interests
My broad research interests are flower development, SEPALLATA transcription factors, genetic redundancy, and robustness.
My PhD focuses on understanding how SEPALLATA genes contribute to robust flower development in Arabidosis thaliana. The SEP family of transcription factors comprises of 4 duplicated genes that are essential for specifying floral organ identity. Under controlled environmental conditions, these genes are reported to have redundant functions in flower development; however, recent studies from our group show that sep single and double mutants show phenotypic changes when exposed to varying environmental conditions, suggesting that SEPs collectively contribute to the development of uniform flowers in natural conditions. We aim to understand the mechanism underpinning this robustness of flower development under stochastic environmental conditions.
Qualifications
- Integrated MSc/MTech in Biotechnology
Research groups and institutes
- Plant Science