Professor Brendan Davies

Profile

Our group studies plant development. We began by trying to understand flower development and still work in this area. Studying flower development and meristem function led us to the role of transcription factors, gene regulatory networks and the control of gene expression in developmental processes. This also led to an interest in other forms of gene regulation such as repression, mRNA stability, splicing and control of translation. 

Individual projects are currently underway in the following broad areas:

• Understanding flower development - the master regulators and their downstream targets.
• The mechanism of transcriptional repression and its role in plant development and evolution.
• Control of translation by short conserved upstream open reading frames.
• Alternative splicing and the effect of temperature.

Plant Science

• The Centre for Plant Sciences

Research interests

Plant development; regulation of gene expression; transcriptional repression; alternative splicing; translational control; evolution.

• Conditional uORF-Dependent Translational Control of Plant Gene Expression
• RiboCode - Unlocking the secrets of specialised ribosomes across eukaryotes
• The epigenetic control temperature-induced flowering

Qualifications

• BSc, London;
• PhD 1991, CNAA.

Student education

Undergraduate project topics:

• Plant development using molecular genetics

Postgraduate studentship areas:

• Genes controlling plant development

See also:

• Faculty Graduate School
• FindaPhD Project details:
  • Project 3401

Research groups and institutes

• Plant Science

Current postgraduate researchers

• Dom Hirsz