- Department
- Email Address
- [email protected]
- Research Areas
- Research Keywords
- Research Description
My lab studies the developmental signals that cause plants to flower. In particular, we study a gene found in maize called id1, which is important for regulating flowering processes. If maize plants lack this gene, they flower extremely late, or not at all, and they exhibit abnormal flower development. This research is important for agricultural production of crops and food security.
- Research Summary
One of the fundamental questions in plant biology concerns the nature of the signals that bring about the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth. My research is aimed at characterizing the developmental signals that cause plants to flower. The primary focus of this work is the maize indeterminate gene (id1). Maize plants that lack id1 function flower extremely late, or not at all, and they exhibit abnormal flower development. The ID1 protein contains zinc-finger motifs, suggesting that it regulates the expression of other genes. Expression analysis reveals that id1 mRNA is expressed only in leaf tissue, suggesting that ID1 acts by controlling the production of leaf-derived signals that mediate the transition to flowering.
- Techniques Used
Molecular, genetic and biochemical approaches; cDNA microarrays.
- Locations of international collaborators
Research Centre for Cereal and Industrial Crops (Italy); Sultan Qaboos University (Oman); Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (China); Universidade Federal de Lavras (Brazil); Shizuoka University (Japan); Syngenta Biotechnology (USA).
- Links