Animals often employ a fight-or-flight strategy when facing challenges. By contrast, plants handle challenges on site through many molecular, morphological, and physiological solutions. The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) is a nexus molecule of stress responses and plant development. Without proper ABA responses, plants would make unwise decisions such as germinating prematurely or failing to preserve water and other resources during a drought. The ABA responses are orchestrated through the expression of thousands of genes and the regulation of these gene products. Our lab studies ABA-regulated gene expression, and the specific regulation in different tissues or under various stresses.
2. Environmental and genetic control of seed development
Grains and oilseeds are essential to humans. Seeds are also mini time machines that may outlive many generations of people. Several key stages of seed development, including storage reserve deposition, desiccation, and dormancy, are related to ABA. We study the environmental and genetic control of seed development, and use this model to understand how ABA shapes distinct and complex biological processes.
