We are studying
the cellular and molecular basis of plant growth and development.
Our research focuses on determining the mechanisms that
regulate cell division, cell expansion and the interaction
of plants with fungal pathogens. The Group uses state-of-the-art
light microscopy facilities and many research programs combine
microscopical analyses with molecular and biochemical approaches.
Dr Peter John and Dr Enrico Perotti are investigating the developmental progressions that influence plant growth and are integral with the development of embryos. We are investigating ways in which apomictic embryos can be generated to capture increased plant vigour and other traits that are of benefit in agricultural biotechnology.
Plant cell walls are central to growth and development and important
for many other facets of plant biology. We use Arabidopsis
mutants and chemical analyses to study how plants make cellulose
and other polysaccharides for their walls. These studies are important
for understanding plant development and are relevant to industry
because of the value of cellulosic materials such as cotton and
wood fibres.
Plants are capable of resisting pathogen infection by recognising
molecules produced by the attacking pathogen and mounting an effective
defence response. We use the interactions between tomato and two
pathogenic fungi, the leaf mould fungus, Cladosporium fulvum,
and the vascular wilt fungus, Fusarium oxysporum, as model
systems to investigate the molecular basis of this recognition.
Improved plant disease resistance will provide major economic
and social benefits.
The aim of our research is to develop focused strategies towards the prevention of plant diseases through the better understanding of the fungal pathogen. Our laboratory exploits many of the modern techniques and application sucha t metabolomics, proteomics, transcript profiling and reverse genetics.
Research in the group investigates the cell and molecular biology
of Oomycete and fungal plant pathogens. We focus in particular
on species of Phytophthora. The aim of much of our research
is to elucidate the molecular and cellular basis of the infection
of host plants by Phytophthora species, including the
identification and characterisation of Phytophthora pathogenicity
genes. We also investigate the cell biology of the plant response
to Oomycete infections using GFP-tagged Arabidopsis plants.
Arioli T, Peng L, Betzner A, Burn J, Wittke W, Herth W, Camilleri
C, Höfte H, Plazinski J, Birch R, Cork A, Glover J, Redmond
J, Williamson RE. Molecular analysis of cellulose biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana. Science 179, 717-720 (1998)
Barker CL, Baillie BK, Hammond-Kosack KE, Jones JDG, Jones DA (2006) Dominant-negative interference with defence signalling by truncation mutations of the tomato Cf-9 disease resistance gene. the Plant Journal 46, 385-389.
Barker CL, Talbot SJ, Jones JDG, Jones DA (2006) A tomato mutant that shows stunting, wilting, progressive necrosis and constitutive expression of defence genes contains a recombinant Hcr9 gene encoding an auto-active protein. The Plant Journal 46, 369-384.
Collings DA, Lill AW, Himmelspach R, Wasteneys GO (2006) Sensitisation to cytoskeletal antagonists demonstrates microtubule/microfilament interactions in the control of anisotropic cell expansion in roots of Arabidopsis thaliana. New Phytologist 170, 275-290.
Collings DA, Vaughn KC, Harper JDI (2003) The association of peroxisomes with the developing cell plate in dividing onion root cells depends on actin microfilaments and myosin. Planta 218, 204-216.
John PCL (2007) Hormonal regulation of cell cycle progression and its role in development. In: Cell Cycle Control and Plant Development (ed. D Inzé) Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK. in press
Robold AV, Hardham AR (2005) During attachment of Phytophthora spores secrete proteins containing thrombospondin type 1 repeats. Current Genetics 47, 307-315.
Shan W, Liu J, Hardham AR (2006) Phytophthora nicotianae PnPMA1 encodes an atypical plasma membrane H+-ATPase that is functional in yeast and developmentally regulated. Fungal Genetics and biology 43, 583-592.
Takemoto D, Jones DA, Hardham AR (2003) GFP-tagging of cell components reveals the dynamics of subcellular re-organization in response to infection of Arabidopsis by oomycete pathogens. The Plant Journal 33, 775-792.
Whittington AT, Vugrek O, Wei KJ, Hasenbein NG, Sugimoto K, Rashbrooke
MC, Wasteneys GO (2001) MOR1 is essential for organizing cortical
microtubules in plants. Nature 411:610-613
Williamson RE, Burn JE, Hocart CH. (2002) Towards the mechanism
of cellulose synthesis. Trends in Plant Science 7, 461-467
Zhang K, Letham DS, John PCL (1996) Cytokinin controls the cell cycle at mitosis by stimulating tyrosine dephosphorylation and activation of p34 cdc2 -like H1 histone kinase. Planta 200, 2-12.
