Grierson Lab:Lab Members

Research Interests

We are interested in root hair development and differentiation. Starting with the genetic network of root hair growth, which enabled us to identify gene products of central importance, we continue to pursue several gene functions in detail whilst simultaneously using "top down" approaches to the network as a whole.

Current projects (with relevant students, research staff, and collaborators in brackets) include:

1. The function and targets of the TIP1 S-acyl transferase (Piers Hemsley, Nick Davis, Paul Dupree, Kathryn Lilley, Shaul Yalovsky)

2. Role and regulation of ROP small GTPases and their regulators in root hair growth (Matt Smallman, Eric Lalanne, Sarah Usher, Zhenbiao Yang)

3. Regulation of root hair development by auxin (Angharad Jones, Colin Lazarus, Ottoline Leyser)

4. Response of root development to the light environment (Fran Salisbury, Karen Halliday)

5. Potential to model root hair development (Gordon Breen, Peter Green)

Towards virtual root hair cells?

Root hair cells offer an outstanding opportunity to study the entire development of a plant cell in the context of a developing organ. Throughout their lives, from cell divisions in the transparent root meristem, to the production and function of mature root hairs, hair cells and their contents are visible, and for most of this time, readily accessible at the root surface. Arabidopsis root hair genetics is very well established, and together with the results of transcriptomics, data mining, reverse genetics, and cell biology, is revealing processes that control the patterning of hair and non-hair cells, the expansion and elongation of root hair cells before root hair growth, root hair cell polarity, and root hair development itself. All of these processes involve dynamic interactions between components, and dynamic models are required to test current hypotheses about mechanisms. In collaboration with other root hair researchers and the CIPB virtual root project, we are contemplating the ambitious goal of integrating knowledge of transcriptional regulation, hormone signalling and responses, cell wall properties and regulators, and the cell growth machinery to produce useful models of virtual root hair cells in the context of a virtual root.