Maloof Lab

Room 2115 Section of Plant Biology 1002 Life Sciences, One Shields Ave. University of California Davis Davis, CA 95616 Contact

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Research How do organisms adapt to different environments? We are interested in understanding the genetic and molecular changes that take place as organisms adapt to different environments. Which genes change, what types of genetic changes occur, and how do these changes affect the organism at the biochemical, physiological, and ecological levels? Since plants are rooted in their environment, they are particularly adept at coping with their environment. Furthermore different species, and populations within species, have adapted to different environments. Therefore plants are well suited for studying adaptation mechanisms. Because light is fundamental to plant growth, we have focused on how plants sense and respond to environmental light cues. We are focused on light perception by the phytochrome photoreceptors. Phytochromes sense red and far-red light and provide information about the density of neighboring foliage (among other things). We work on Arabidopsis thaliana and related species and use a combination of molecular genetic, quantitative genetic, and molecular evolution techniques. Please see naturalvariation.org for information about some of our collaborators who are taking similar approaches. read more...

Lab Members Julin Maloof Daniele Filiault Jose M Jimenez-Gomez Patricia Mueller-Moule Kazunari Nozue Matthew Schultz Jose Solis Visiting Scientist Gilstu Choi Former Members Leonie Moyle Andrea Wills Carrie Wessinger Melissa Pytlak Celia Futch Ana Mitchell Andii Wallace

Publications Filiault DL, Wessinger CA, Dinneny JR, Lutes J, Borevitz JO, Weigel D, Chory J and Maloof JN. (2008) Amino acid polymorphisms in Arabidopsis phytochrome B cause differential responses to light. PNAS 105, 3157-3162. Nozue K, Covington MF, Duek PD, Lorrain S, Fankhauser C, Harmer SL, Maloof JN. (2007) Rhythmic growth explained by coincidence between internal and external cues. Nature 448, 358-361. Nozue, K., Maloof, J.N. (2006) Diurnal regulation of plant growth. Plant Cell Environ 29, 396-408. Balasubramanian, S., Sureshkumar, S., Agrawal, M., Michael, T.P., Wessinger, C., Maloof, J.N., Clark, R., Warthmann, N., Chory, J., Weigel, D. (2006) The PHYTOCHROME C photoreceptor gene mediates natural variation in flowering and growth responses of Arabidopsis thaliana. Nat Genet 38, 711-5. see complete list...

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Funding NSF Plant Genome Research Program Molecular evolutionary genetics of crop and weed responses to crowding Human Frontier Science Program