Plants
exhibit a remarkable range of architectural designs.
A stroll through the local park reveals the incredible
diversity of body plans that have evolved in the
plant kingdom: from the weeds underfoot to the
trees that tower overhead. Even within a given
species, plants exhibit a phenomenal plasticity
in architectural design. Siblings may have different
numbers of shoots, roots or flowers, with entirely
different orientations and locations in the plant
body.
Despite the incredible diversity in plant forms,
the molecular mechanisms that control plant architecture
are highly conserved across diverse genera. It
is thought that the timing and localization of
these mechanisms, in response to environmental
and developmental cues, determine the overall
structure of the plant body. The Campbell lab
tests hypotheses aimed at understanding the molecular
mechanisms that control plant architecture, with
a focus on the perception and allocation of carbon.
Dr. Campbell's group employs a multidisciplinary
approach incorporating the tools of comparative
functional genomics, genetics, cell biology and
biochemistry to address questions relating to
the molecular basis of development and the evolution
of diverse plant architectures. Much of the group's
work focuses on the transcriptional control of
plant development; consequently, microarray and
bioinformatics experiments feature prominently
in the most recent work in the group. |