After germination, seedlings must orient the growth of their primary organs to photosynthesize before food reserves are exhausted, to take up water and soil mineral ions, and to anchor. My laboratory is studying the mechanisms by which plant organs use mechanical stimuli, including gravity and touch, to direct their growth.
Roots constitute a good model system for such studies.
We are using that system to better define the gravitropic and thigmotropic mutants described above. The latter approach will provide an alternative to the procedures outlined above for the isolation and characterization of plant homologs involved in the physiological transduction of gravity and touch signals. Lab Group Members of the Masson Laboratory. Robert Rutherford , Elizabeth Rosen , Ann Batiza , Tara Schulz Publications in Refereed Journals For more recent publications and abstracts, please click here to query PubMed . Sedbrook, J., R. Chen and P. Masson .