Plant Biology Faculty

Training Faculty

• Wayne Barnes (Biochemistry Department) PCR development; plant genetic engineering for insect or virus resistance.
• Roger Beachy (Director, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center) Mechanisms of viral pathogenesis; structure and function of plant virus proteins; genetic engineering of plant virus resistance.
• Robert Blankenship - Molecular mechanisms of energy storage in photosynthetic systems.
• Thomas Croat(Missouri Botanical Garden) Systematics and ecology of Araceae.
• Ram Dixit (Biology Department) Molecular mechanisms of cytoskeleton organization and function in plants; regulation of cell shape and division.
• Susan Dutcher (Genetics Department) The role of centrioles in cell cycle progression and flagellar biogenesis in Chlamydomonas.
• Gayle Fritz (Anthropology Department) Analysis of archaeological plant remains; evolution of agricultural societies..
• Ursula Goodenough (Biology Department) Molecular genetics and evolution of sex in Chlamydomonas.
• Elizabeth Haswell (Biology Department) Mechanotransdution and mechanosensitive ion channels in plants; organelle morphology determination.
  
• Tuan-Hua David Ho (Biology Department) Hormone and stress regulated gene expression in plants; function of stress proteins.
  
• Jan Jaworski (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center) Biosynthesis and metabolism of plant fatty acids and lipids.
• Joseph M. Jez (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center) Structural biology and biochemistry of plant natural product biosynthesis.
• Tiffany Knight Plant population ecology, conservation biology, and plant-animal interactions.
• Robert Kranz (Biology Department) Gene regulation and biogenesis of extracellular components in bacteria.
• Barbara Kunkel (Biology Department) Plant-pathogen interactions; molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity and host susceptiblity.
• Toni M. Kutchan, Ph.D. - Plant natural product biosynthesis and metabolic engineering of medicinal plant.
• Memory Elvin Lewis(Biology Department) Ethnomedically focused drug discovery from plants.
• Kenneth M. Olsen. Plant molecular population genetics, phylogeography and evolutionary genomics.
• Himadri Pakrasi (Biology Department) Genetics and biochemistry of protein complexes in energy-transducing membranes; transport of metal ions.
• Craig Pikaard (Biology Department) Gene silencing in genetic hybrids; transgene silencing; structure/function of transcription complexes
• Ralph Quatrano (Biology Department) Mechanisms of establishing cell polarity; hormone regulated gene expression.
  
• Peter Raven (Director, Missouri Botanical Garden) Systematics and evolution of Onagraceae and Myrtales, phytogeography, tropical floristics and conservation.
• P. Mick Richardson (Missouri Botanical Garden) Plant secondary compounds, taxonomy, cladistics; evolution of toxic compounds.
• Mark Running (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center) Functional studies of meristem regulation and flower patterning; signaling events in plant development.
• Jan Salick (Missouri Botanical Garden)
• Barbara Schaal (Biology Department) Evolutionary genetics of plants; molecular evolution.
  
• Daniel Schachtman (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center) Mechanisms that roots use to regulate mineral uptake from soils and to sense changes in soil conditions.
• Weixiong Zhang (Computer Science Department) Computational biology, transcriptional regulation, hormone and stress regulated gene expression

Resource Faculty (not accepting students for thesis training)

• David Kirk Genetic control of germ/soma cellular differentiation in Volvox.
• Danny Kohl N cycle processes; energy metabolism of N2 fixing symbionts; adaptation of plants to stress; metabolic pathways.
• Walter Lewis Plants used medicinally by indigenous peoples.
• Barbara Pickard Sensory integration in plants.
• William Pickard (Electrical Engineering Department) Threshold signal detection, translocation, plant electrophysiology, bioelectromagnetics.

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