Christopher Kirk
Doctor of Philosophy, (Biochemistry)
Study Completed: 2013
College of Sciences
Citation
Thesis Title
The DELLA Protein Family and Gibberellin Signal Transduction
Read article at Massey Research Online: 
The phytohormone gibberellin is involved in many growth and development processes that occur in a plants lifecycle. The DELLA protein family repress these responses from occurring until this signal is present. Mr Kirk identified the DELLA protein orthologues in apple and kiwifruit and investigated their expression patterns using qPCR. Using immune-precipitation and mass spectography DELLA protein repression targets were identified in Arabidopsis and a large ''repressome'' complex was observed. Further understanding of DELLA proteins and DELLA repression targets offers the prospect of moderating the growth characteristics of crop plants so that they are advantageous to farmers.
Supervisors
Professor Jasna Rakonjac
Dr William Jones
Professor Tim Foster