Vivian Irish

The broad interest of our lab is to understand the flowering process. Most of our work utilizes Arabidopsis thaliana (mouse ear cress) as a model system to investigate the developmental genetic mechanisms that control how flowers are formed and elaborated. The Arabidopsis genome has been completely sequenced, the plants are easy to grow, and this species can be easily transformed and genetically manipulated, making it an ideal system in which to explore these questions. We are focusing on understanding the transcriptional mechanisms and signaling processes that control floral organ development. In addition to dissecting the pathways controlling these processes in Arabidopsis, we are interested in understanding the extent to which these regulatory networks have been conserved in other flowering plant species. In turn, understanding the commonalities in flower development across a variety of plant species will be key in developing methods to control plant productivity and crop yield.