Dr Rituparna Goswami

Intercellular variability and interplant variability 

Individuals with the same genotypic background growing in a similar environment can exhibit surprisingly high-levels of gene expression differences, which is known as variability. Non-genetic variability remains largely unexplored in multicellular organisms. Recently, our lab quantified levels of between-plant variability in gene expression by performing RNA-seq on 14 individual Arabidopsis plants. To understand how variable expression is being coordinated between the cellular and whole organism levels, I am examining cellular expression of highly variable stress responsive genes in Arabidopsis. My work will allow for the first time a mapping between gene expression variability at the level of the organism and at the single cell level.

Stress and Variability

I am interested in studying the survival strategies of plants under stressful environments at the single-cell level specifically to temperature and drought stress, which are particularly pertinent to the climate crisis. I want to examine how survival might be linked with variability. Preliminary data from the Locke-lab shows high levels of variability in abiotic stress response gene expression at the inter-plant level. I am studying the inter-cellular gene expression variability when stress is introduced and how this in-turn affects plant survival.

Plant Nuclear Mechanics

Plants can use physical properties as instructive signals. In my PhD project, I uncovered important roles of nuclear morpho-mechanics in the regulation of gene expression during stress-response. Using hyperosmotic stress to impose hydrostatic force on root meristem nuclei, I showed for the first time that nuclear morphology and stiffness is sensitive to the plant’s environment and is regulated by gel-like chromatin (Goswami et al., 2020 Curr. Bio.). My work was featured in Plantae Plant Science Research Weekly.