Grasses provide the bulk of human nutrition and developing climate resilient cereals is central to maintaining global food security. Work in the lab focuses on understanding the genetic basis of stress tolerance using naturally resilient C4 cereals like teff, millets, and sorghum as well as the leading cereal maize. To identify the traits and genetic loci underlying stress tolerance in cereals, we use a combination of physiology, high-throughput phenotyping, quantitative genetics, expression dynamics, and predictive modeling-based approaches. We profile stress responses using highly controlled greenhouse, growth chamber, and field environments. The long-term goals of this research are to understand, model, and predict drought responses and to develop climate-resilient cereals.
Functional Genomics, Photosynthesis, Stress
