Biology Department Seminar

Our long-term goal is to investigate the mechanisms by which plants control gene expression and to elucidate the structure and dynamics of the underlying gene regulatory networks (GRNs) with the objective of manipulating plant form and metabolism. We have used a number of cellular processes as "windows" to explore the architecture of plant GRNs in monocots (e.g., maize) and dicots (e.g., Arabidopsis). We are investigating the regulation of maize flavonoids/phenylpropanoids, and established new aspects of MYB/bHLH combinatorial gene regulation and previously unknown branches of the pathway. The differentiation of Arabidopsis epidermal cells into leaf hairs and stomates furnishes an outstanding system for the application of systems approaches to understand GRN architecture and dynamics. Combined with the development of two public databases, AGRIS (http://arabidopsis.med.ohio-state.edu/) for Arabidopsis and GRASSIUS (www.grassius.org) for maize and other grasses, information on transcription factors, promoters and their interactions is integrated, facilitating the identification and visualization of GRNs.