Current Research Interests: Plant Molecular Biology
My primary research interests are directed towards gaining an understanding of the molecular responses elicited in plants by environmental stress. More specifically, my research is focussed on the impact of environmental stress on roots. Given their role in absorbing water and nutrients, the roots are often the first part of the plant to experience an environmental stress, in particular, osmotic stress. The level of several hormones is altered in plants following exposure to various environmental stresses and these hormones are responsible for mediating many of the responses that occur in the stressed plant. We are characterizing the response of roots to a salt or water deficit (drought) stress. These stresses impose a common osmotic stress on plants and both are known to elicit the accumulation of the hormone abscisic acid (ABA). ABA mediates a number of physiological responses that occur in osmotically-stressed plants (e.g. stomatal closure), in addition to playing a major role in inducing the transcription of a number of genes. However, ABA insensitive changes in gene expression have been reported, and relatively little is known regarding its role in coordinating changes in gene expression that occur in stressed roots. To determine the importance of this hormone in regulating gene expression in roots, we have isolated a number of cDNA clones that accumulate in stressed roots in an ABA-dependent or independent manner. We are using these clones to dissect the molecular response of roots to osmotic stress. Currently we are using them to (i) understand the role of ABA and other plant hormones in coordinating their stress-induced expression, (ii) learn more of the signaling pathways that transduce an osmotic stress signal through the cell to activate their expression and (iii) characterize the regulatory sequences that play a role in the transcriptional activation of gene expression.
Last Updated 09/24/1999