Research Interests

My research focus deals with modeling wood formation (xylogenesis) and its evolution. I am especially interested in understanding the molecular biology of carbon allocation and partitioning between polysaccharide (cellulose and xylan) and phenolic (lignin) biopolymers during wood formation in Eucalyptus trees. These polymers are an important raw material for many current commercial high-end value derivatives, and are critical for a sustainable green economy. A deeper understanding of carbon metabolic flux and utilization in secondary cell wall biosynthesis in plants is key to understanding global carbon sequestration (woody tissues of plants represent a significant carbon sink), as well as developing successful biotechnology solutions in the future to trees and other biomass-related crops.

The research primarily focuses on constructing a model of the regulatory network (genes, proteins and pathways) that play a role in influencing the partitioning of carbon, and the deposition of cellulose and xylan in wood, and identifying candidate pathways or processes for biotechnological improvement of trees (applied via breeding using molecular selection tools, or genetic modification). Applying transcriptome sequencing and quantitative metabolomics at the population level in conjunction with population-wide phenotypic screening has enabled a systems genetics reconstruction of factors regulating and influencing commercially important wood traits.

My lab has also been the first to propose and characterize the molecular biology of xyloplasts, specialized plastids in wood forming cells that represent an irreversible carbon shunt between polysaccharide and lignin production. Using a systems biology (including various coding and non-coding transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and transmission electron microscopy) and systems genetics approach, we are characterizing how these plastids function, appear, and are regulated at a molecular level during secondary growth.

I also investigate the evolution of land plants, pertaining especially to vasculature and secondary cell wall deposition, and the evolution of nuclear-organellar genome communication and regulation). Exploring the evolution of gene-networks regulating these conserved processes has broader implications for understanding the evolution of genes and gene-networks under varying evolutionary constraints.