Research

My research is centered around meristems, a tissue that contains plant stem cells. I am especially interested in specialized meristems, called inflorescence meristems, which will produce inflorescences. Work from my postdoc lab, as well as several other labs, has shown that altering the signaling pathways that control inflorescence meristem architecture can positively impact yield. Better understanding of meristem signaling pathways can therefore help us better understand how to control yield-related traits.

I use maize as a model system to understand meristem signaling, because it is a crop of high agronomic value. It also has rich genetic resources, including a diverse panel of maize lines, mutant lines, and many genomic resources.