ARCTICA (ARC) is a gene of unknown function in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. It is a putative interactor of the AURORA kinase and shows interesting asymmetric localization at the outer polar domain of root cells. The topic of the master thesis will be to obtain novel insights into the fucntion and developmental role of ARC. The candidate will perform a thorough bioinformatical analysis including phylogenetic analysis of the evolution of ARC family in higher plants; sequence scanning for potential functional domains; protein topology and structure predictions; in silico co-expression analysis. In paralel, approaches of molecular biology and molecular genetics in combination with phenotype analysis and microscopy will be used to gain insight into loss- and gain-of-function effects of ARC and into subcellular localization and dynamics.