The goals of my research are to further our understanding of plant response to environmental stresses such as drought and to global climate change issues such as elevated temperature and atmospheric CO2, to identify potential targets for future crop improvement, and to identify genes responsible for desirable stress tolerance traits. Our research has indicated that sink organ development during cell division and primordial phases is especially responsive to environment, so we are determining the mechanisms by which environmental stresses arrest sink-organ development (especially reproductive organs and kernels), alter phytohormone and carbohydrate levels and modify the expression of gene products involved in cell proliferation. All of our studies deal with plant responses to environmental conditions, especially water deficit, temperature extremes, and elevated atmospheric CO2. Studies on maize reproductive development concern the influence of water deficit on abscisic acid and cytokinin levels, on sugar fluxes in grain tissues, and regulatory proteins. We use DNA microarrays to profile gene expression, collaborate on mapping genetic loci, and use a functional genomics approach to identify the roles that changes in these regulatory factors play in altering the expression of genes associated with stress response.

I teach courses on the physiology and ecology of crop yield (CSS 613), water status assessment techniques (CSS 608), and the biology of responses to environmental stresses (CSS 610).