Higher plants respond to infectious wounding and stress by synthesizing protective compounds.
Key enzymes required for the synthesis of these compounds are encoded by genes whose rate of transcription is rapidly increased in response to environmental cues. This response is likely to involve a change in the activity of cognate DNA-binding factors. A growing body of evidence, moreover, supports the notion that protein kinases and phosphatases of plants play a key role in the regulation of specific genes. Using biochemical and molecular biological approaches my laboratory is determining how signal-responsive genes are regulated in plants by transcription factors, with emphasis on the role of protein phosphorylation in this process. To better understand how eukaryotic gene expression is regulated my laboratory will clone and functionally characterize mediators of plant transcription.