Plant development and physiology

Work in the Gendall Lab is aimed at understanding two important aspects of plant development - flowering time and responses to abiotic stresses.

The lab uses genetic and molecular approaches to study aspects of plant development and physiology using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We are particularly interested in using the natural variation present between different varieties (ecotypes or accessions) of a species to identify genes that regulate particular characteristics.

These methods initially use genetic approaches (mapping of segregating traits) to determine how many genes are responsible for a particular trait, and molecular techniques to clone the genes. Additional work uses genetic screens and novel mutants to uncover new genes in flowering time and salt signalling pathways.