The Division of Biological Sciences has a strong, interactive group of scientists exploring fundamental mechanisms of genetics and genomics. Genetics is being used to elucidate a wide range of fundamental processes, including cytokinesis, learning and memory, neuronal development, transcription, cellular signaling, physiology, metabolism and chromosome evolution. Genomic-level studies are being used to study population dynamics and development of new traits. Research in this area benefits from several campus core research facilities, including a DNA Core, and animal modeling core, a plant transformation core, and an Informatics Research Core.
Faculty
The genetic and metabolic control of seed amino acids’ composition
Establishment and maintenance of epithelial tissue architecture
The genetic and hormonal control of plant architecture
Gene Environment Interactions and Epigenetics
Chromosome evolution and function in plants and fruit fly
Genetic control of carbon partitioning in plants
Generation and characterization of animal models to study genetics and disease
Mechanisms of cell-cell communication during development and tumor progression
Gene regulatory mechanisms controlling plant architecture traits in cereal crops
Establishment and maintenance of epithelial tissue architecture
The genetics and consequences of maize domestication and breeding
Staphylococcus aureus stress responses at the host-pathogen interface
Mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis shaping plant-microbe interactions
Influence of insect-associated microbes on host phenotype
Genomic approaches to the study of life history evolution
Systems approaches to the study of aging in ecological settings.
Genetics and data mining of multi-modal datasets for translational research
Patterns and consequences of animal sociality
Meiotic silencing by unpaired DNA and sexual development in fungi
Determining how transposable elements become epigenetically silenced
Interspecific interactions in community modulation
Evolution of complex traits in laboratory fruit fly populations
Understanding and predicting the genetic and physiological basis of plant phenotypes
Genetic dissection of synaptic plasticity, neural circuitry, and behavior in fruit flies
