We are interested in understanding how plants sense and respond to the environment. Specific research projects are outlined below. Detailed information is available through the links.

National Science Foundation, Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. Nitric Oxide and Autophagy Regulation in Arabidopsis.

NSF Collaborative Project (With Massimo Pigliucci, SUNY Stony Brook, and Randy Small, University of Tennessee- Knoxville). Morphological and genetic analysis of the touch-induced developmental response ("thigmomorphogenesis) in Arabidopsis. One focus was to understand the roles of touch-inducible Calmodulin (CaM) and CaM-like (CML) proteins. Arabidopsis has seven CaM genes and 50 CMLs. The CMLs are related to CaM in that they have the EF hand structures for binding calcium ions. We are interested in the biochemical and physiological functions of this gene family.

NSF 2010 Project Arabidopsis has 33 genes encoding putative xyloglucan endotransglucosylases/hydrolases (XTHs). Our goals are to decipher the physiological functions of this gene family. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation 2010 Initiative.

Mechanosensory Responses of Plants. We are interested in how plant perceive mechanical and other types of environmental stimuli, and how molecular and developmental responses are regulated. Genetic screens aimed to identify functional components of the mechanosensory and environmental response pathways of plants. This work was funded by the Department of Energy.