Research TopicsDepartment of Crop Sciences
Ph.D. (1998) Leicester University
Research Topics
Research Interests
Current research efforts are focused on combining bioinformatics with genetic and genomic techniques to solve problems in regulatory genomics and transcriptional networks. This laboratory is interested in bioinformatics, mechanism and evolution of transcriptional networks, DNA binding proteins and regulatory DNA sequences. To further this aim, we are building high performance computing platforms and developing software to detect, catalog and deconvolute the regulatory motifs and networks that are detectable using the large transcriptional profiling datasets now publicly available for Arabidopsis . We are also interested in the evolution of the patterns of regulatory motifs found in the promoters of key genes in related species and how regulatory sequence evolution contributes to body plan and environmental adaptation in plants.
The laboratory is also interested in the biological consequences of the perturbation of regulatory networks and how these are controlled. For this, the chief system of interest is the light-regulated signaling networks of plants. We are currently working on molecular dissection of the light-regulatory network that controls de-etiolation in Arabidopsis . Together with Tom Brutnell ( Cornell University) and Steven Moose ( University of Illinois), we have also proposed a project to investigate the functional and regulatory genomic processes underlying photomorphogenesis in maize.
Finally, we are interested in expanding and furthering the informatics and genomics tools available for genomic mapping experiments and sequence variability studies. We are working to adapt oligonucleotide arrays and analysis software for genome profiling and mapping and to evaluate emerging sequence detection technologies for resequencing and haplotyping in Arabidopsis , maize and soybean, ultimately allowing for cross-referencing of transcriptional profiling data between related organisms
Key Words Genomics; crops; annotation; expression; analysis; transction; photoreceptor; Phytochome; maize; Arbidopsis; soybean; light
Current Research Funding
USDA