Overview

We don't work with roses, but Arabidopsis, the first plant to have all its genes sequenced. We collaborate with colleagues at SCRI and in College of Life Sciences to translate our findings into crop plant and biomedical advances.

Flowering Time

We isolate and study Arabidopsis mutants that flower either earlier or later than normal. In this way, we have identified genes required to control flowering time and we then study exactly how they are involved.

RNA

We have discovered that two flowering regulators control a process called alternative polyadenylation. Although genes are made of DNA, they are copied into a related molecule called RNA when they are switched on. The RNA is cut near the end of the gene and tailed with a string of adenosine molecules, forming what we call the poly(A) tail. Controlling where the RNA is cut has a profound impact on gene expression not only in plants, but also in us. Therefore a key part of our research effort is focussed on RNA poly(A) tails.

A gene we began studying because it controls flowering time is related to a human gene disrupted in a type of infant leukaemia. So in collaboration with Prof. Carol Mackintosh, we are studying how the RNA binding protein encoded by this gene normally works in human cells.

Cereal Inflorescence Development

In addition to studying flowering time, we are interested in how plants control the number of flowers they make. Despite the fundamental importance of cereals like rice, wheat, maize and barley to world food security, we know very little about how they control the number of flowers (and hence the number of grain) that they make. We are studying this process, known as inflorescence architecture, by using mutants of barley