University of Georgia Department of Plant Biology

My lab studies intrinsic genetic properties that make plants different from other organisms and from one another. In particular, selected plants have become crops because of unique attributes that also make them valuable as botanical models. Crop genetics thus offers the opportunity to increase basic scientific knowledge and apply it to contemporary needs. Our priorities are to explore basic principles of genetics and evolution in the genomes of angiosperms, and to accelerate assembly of the genomic frameworks that will permit such principles to be applied to the study and improvement of major crops.