Research at the Morrill Greenhouses

Professor Tobias Baskin

Plant forms have long delighted artists and naturalists with their variety and beauty. These forms arise through morphogenesis in a process that depends on growth. Cells specify their growth rates in each spatial dimension and these rates are usually different from one another, that is, the growth of plant cells is anisotropic. To build an organ with a defined shape, the plant must control precisely the direction of maximal expansion and the magnitude of expansion anisotropy. Understanding the mechanisms whereby plant cells govern growth anisotropy is the crux of Dr. Baskin's research.

Professor Elsbeth Walker

The members of Professor Walker's lab use the model system, Arabidopsis thaliana, to study the mechanisms plants use to take up metals like iron, copper, manganese and zinc from the soil. Even more importantly, they study how these metals are allocated into particular plant parts. These studies establish the basic information needed to manipulate the metal nutritional quality of foods. The growth of wild-type, mutant and transgenic Arabidopsis depends on space in the growth chambers.