Genetic dissection of the dalekin signaling pathway in Arabidopsis Plants use signaling between the shoot and the root to understand their environment and respond to stress. A root to shoot signaling that communicates the perception of rhizosphere stress to the shoot was discovered when analyzing a mutant with growth defects. The signaling compound, dalekin, is a small hormone-like molecule that activates many down-stream processes, including providing resilience to the stresses associated with climate change. Our goal is to identify genes that function in the dalekin signaling pathway with a long-term goal of developing tools for developing more climate-resilient plants. This project is to carry out a genetic screen to identify plants with defects in the dalekin signaling pathway and carry out genetic and molecular characterization of the suppressors. The plants use a sensitized genotype that will allow the desire mutants to be identified as suppressors. Work on this project will allow students to develop microscopy skills when looking for suppressors, to experience hands-on genetic analyses, and then sequence the genomes of suppressed plants to identify the mutation that disrupted the dalekin signaling pathway.