Dr Kumud Saini

Throughout my scientific career, my research has revolved around one key question - how do plants respond to intrinsic signals such as hormones or extrinsic environmental cues such as light or temperature. Plants need to constantly adjust their growth according to their immediate environment. One way plants achieve this is through plasticity in their developmental program and thus their morphology. Since plant cells are immobile, unlike animal cells, this plasticity is achieved at the local cell level via changes in cell division or expansion processes. I am interested in understanding how such changes in an individual or a group of cells influence the growth of entire an organ or plant. 

Biomechanics of cell division and expansion

Currently, in the Robinson group, I am taking this question further and studying how mechanical signals influence a cell’s decision to divide or progress from division to expansion. One of the ways I am approaching this is by comparing the growth of cells under ambient and high ambient temperatures (5-7 °C higher than the optimal growth temperature). Warm temperatures are known to promote cell elongation in cells in petiole and hypocotyls and inhibit cell division in the leaves of the Arabidopsis plant (Saini et. al, 2022). The focus of my research is to understand mechanical cues in between dividing and expanding cells using primarily the developmental pathway of pavement cells (epidermal cells of plants that grow in jigsaw-like shapes)  in the leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana. Taking advantage of bulk and single-nuclei RNA sequencing I am also trying to find out how plants respond to biomechanical stimuli and achieve alteration in their growth patterns.