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Plant Gene Expression Center Faculty

The Baker Lab seeks understanding of the molecular, genetic and biochemical bases of host-microbe interactions, and investigates mechanisms of pathogen-induced host disease and disease resistance. Our experimental system to study plant-pathogen recognition and signal transduction includes a diverse plant pathogen set and Solanaceae plant hosts. We anticipate our studies will lead to new, environmentally benign strategies for durable, broad-spectrum disease resistant crops.

We study the molecular mechanisms that establish and maintain plant stem cell reservoirs. We have demonstrated that Arabidopsis stem cell maintenance requires active intercellular signaling via a spatial negative feedback loop, the CLV3-WUS pathway. We integrate genetics, molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry to analyze the signal transduction mechanism and regulation of the pathway, and to identify additional pathway components. We use functional genomics to characterize a family of plant-specific CLV3-related signaling molecules, the CLE proteins.

Our laboratory uses genetics to study plant development. We work with maize, arabidopsis, and tomato, depending on the experiment. The laboratory research falls into three categories: 1) identifying the downstream targets of the knotted1-like (knox) homeodomain transcription factors, 2) identifying genes that regulate inflorescence architecture in maize and other grasses, 3) investigating new morphological mutations.

The circadian clock is a key adaptation for life on earth, since it lets organisms coordinate internal physiological activities with daily and seasonal environmental changes. The Harmon lab investigates the plant circadian oscillator's molecular mechanism, using Arabidopsis as a model system. We apply genetic, biochemical, molecular, and genomic approaches to identify and characterize proteins contributing the plant clockworks. We seek to integrate their function into current clock models.

We seek to enhance the efficiency of plant transformation, by developing high frequency DNA integration to expedite functional analysis, precise DNA integration into known genome locations for more predictable gene expression, and removal of DNA no longer needed after gene transfer. We also characterize genes that confer plant metal tolerance, and research ways to get rid of gossypol in cottonseed, e.g. engineering the breakdown of gossypol in the seed.

We research molecular mechanisms by which light regulates gene expression in plants, focusing on the phytochromes family of photoreceptors. The photoreceptor molecule acts as a biological switch that upon perception of the light signal, triggers changes in transcription detectable within 5 minutes of stimulus. We recently developed a novel light-switchable gene promoter system potentially usable in any light-accessible eukaryotic cell system for rapid, conditional induction or repression of expression.

We research the molecular mechanism of auxin action, using auxin-inducible genes as probes. We isolated novel, interacting proteins that bind to the auxin responsive domains, and constructed Arabidopsis transgenic lines for isolating mutants responsible for transcriptional activation by auxin. We also research ACC synthase gene expression regulation. We use some ACS genes as molecular probes to study signal transduction pathways responsible for auxin inducibility of ACC synthase gene expression.