Welcome to the Department of Botany at Oklahoma State University. We are a dynamic group devoted to excellence in teaching and fundamental research concerning plants.

Beginning July 1, 2008, Dr. Linda Watson will become our new Department Head. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma and is currently Head of the Department of Botany at Miami University (Ohio).

Bluestem Spring 2008 newsletter

Congrats to our Wentz Scholars!

Lydia Meador, Botany junior
Advisor: Janette Steets
Research Project: Cross-generational plasticity of leaf hair production in Arabidopsis thaliana

Joseph Brancheck, Biochemistry senior
Advisor: Yinghua Huang
Research Project: Analysis of genetic diversity in sorghum germplasm using molecular markers

Winning Poster!

Michael Malahy, Botany undergraduate student working with Andrew Doust, won 2nd place and $50 for his poster at the OSU Research Week Symposium, Feb. 18 - 22, 2008.

Title: Is Plant Architecture Across The Grasses Phylogenetically Meaningful? [link to poster]

Abstract: One of the traits that has been selected upon during the domestication of the cereal grasses is plant architecture.  Across the grasses this has resulted in varying branching patterns. In wheat, oats, and rice, this trend has resulted in a number of equal length basal branches (tillers), while in maize, sorghum and the millets, the trend has been to reduce all growth to a single stem.  We are exploring whether these patterns are the result of selection upon pre-existing variation, and if there is a correlation between the architecture of domesticated grasses and architecture of closely related grass species. Our findings so far indicate that there is a close relationship between evolutionary history and architectural form of domesticated grasses, but that there is also much flexibility, even within genera.  This is not surprising, considering the large effect that environmental variation, especially in light quality, can have on branching patterns.

OCAST Funding

Andrew Doust and Ming Yang will receive OCAST funding ($85,205 each) for basic plant research as part of the 2nd year of the Oklahoma Plant Science Research program.

Andrew Doust: Study foxtail millet to develop switchgrass biomass traits. The millet is closely related to switchgrass which has been identified as a potential source of biomass for alternative fuels. Andrew will produce a set of markers that can be used for comparative mapping to other biomass crops.

Ming Yang: Study certain proteins that will regulate plant reproductive development and provide for genetic or physiological manipulations to improve plant health and productivity. The ultimate goal is improved crop performance.

Spring 2008 Seminar Schedule

New Day and time: Tuesdays 12:00 - 1:20 pm
Same location: 101 Life Sciences East

Tuesday, Apr. 14 - Botany Journal Club

Tuesday, Apr. 22 - Brooke Bonner, M.S. student, Vegetation Community Structure along Salinity Gradients at Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge, Alfalfa County, Oklahoma

 

Recent Botany publications:

Doust, A.N., A.M. Penly. S.M. Jacobs, E.A. Kellogg. 2007. Congruence, conflict and polyploidization revealed by nuclear and chloroplast markers in the monophyletic "bristle clade" (Poaceae: Paniceae). Systematic Botany 32:531-544.

Doust, A.N. 2007. Domestication and the evolution of plant architecture in grasses. Annals of Botany 100:941-950.

Doust, A.N. 2007. Grass architecture: genetic and environmental control of branching. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 10:1-5.

Kirkwood, A.E., J.A. Buchheim, M.A. Buchheim and W.J. Henley. 2008.  Cyanobacterial diversity and halotolerance in a variable hypersaline environment.  Microb. Ecol. 55:453-465.

Muralla, R., E. Chen, C. Sweeney, J.A. Gray, A. Dickerman, B.J. Nikolau, D. Meinke. 2008. A bifunctional locus (BIO3-BIO1) required for biotin biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 146(1):60-73.

Muralla, R., C. Sweeney, A. Stepansky, T. Leustek, and D. Meinke. 2007.  Genetic dissection of histidine biosynthesis in Arabidopsis.  Plant Physiol 144:890-903. 

Palmer, M.W. 2007. The Vascular Flora of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Osage County, Oklahoma. Castanea 72(4):235-246.

Palmer, M.W., R.K. Peet, R.A. Reed, W. Xi, P.S. White. 2007. A Multiscale Study of Vascular Plants in a North Carolina Piedmont Forest. Ecology 88:(10):2674.

Palmer, Michael W. 2007. Species-area curves and the geometry of nature. pp. 15-31 In: Storch, D., P.L. Marquet, and J.H. Brown (eds.) Scaling Biodiversity. Cambridge University Press.

Qian, H., J.D. Fridley and M.W. Palmer. 2007. The Latitudinal Gradient of Species-Area Relationships for Vascular Plants of North America. Am. Naturalist 170(5).

Scheets, Kay. 2007. Machlomovirus (Tombusviridae). In: Mahy, B. and van Regenmortel, M. (eds.) Encyclopedia of Virology, 3rd ed. Elsevier, London.

Schoenknecht, Gerald. 2007. Vacuolar calcium channels. J Exp Bot (in press).

Steets, J. A., J. R. Auld, D. E. Wolf and T.-L. Ashman. 2007. The role of natural enemies in the expression and evolution of mixed mating in hermaphroditic plants and animals. Evolution 61(9): 2043-2055

Steets, J. A., T. M. Knight, and T.-L. Ashman. 2007. The interactive effect of vegetative herbivory and mating system for the demography of Impatiens capensis. American Naturalist 170 (1): 113-127.

Wang Y, Wu H, Yang M (2008) Microscopy and bioinformatic analyses of lipid metabolism implicate a sporophytic signaling network supporting pollen development in Arabidopsis. Mol Plant, in press.

Vitha, S., M. Yang, F.D. Sack, and J.Z. Kiss. 2007. Gravitropism in the starch excess mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana. Am J Bot 94(4):590-598.

Wang, Y. and M. Yang. 2007. In silico identification of co-transcribed core cell cycle regulators and transcription factors in Arabidopsis. J Integrative Plant Biol 49(8):1253-1260.