Robert J. Schmidt
Professor
Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, UCSD
Paul D. Saltman Chair in Science Education
e-mail: rschmidt@ucsd.edu
Our research interests are directed towards understanding the regulation of gene expression in plants and its impact on plant development, using maize as our experimental system.
During the last 10 years our research has focused on understanding the gene and gene interactions that regulate maize floral development and inflorescence architecture. These studies include, when appropriate, a comparison of the corresponding genes and their activities in other experimental plants to gain insight into the evolution of developmental systems. These studies are contributing to our understanding of the mechanisms controlling flower development in one of the most agriculturally important groups of angiosperms, the cereals.
We are now particularly interested in those genes that underlie the regulation of vegetative and inflorescence branching in maize, specifically those affecting meristem identity and regulating meristem fates. Our lab is part of a consortium of scientists (http://gremlin1.gdcb.iastate.edu/MIP/gene/index.html) who are assembling the genetic and biochemical networks that will allow us to begin understanding the mechanisms that determine inflorescence architecture in maize and related cereal crops. The diversity of architecture in the grasses is striking and results from variation in the identity and determinacy of distinct meristems formed within the developing inflorescence. Our objective is to determine how these genes fit into a larger genetic network and to determine the divergence and conservation of the networks in other grass species. Changes in plant architecture have been important in crop domestication, and an understanding of the regulation of branch formation will be important in efforts to engineer modern crops for improved light harvesting potential, synchrony of flowering and seed set. Information obtained from these studies on maize should be readily transferable to other important cereal crops. As evident from the above description, research in our lab involves a combination of field, greenhouse and bench work. Our studies are facilitated by our having greenhouses and several acres of field space available on campus as well as fruitful collaborations with Midwestern universities and some of the nation's largest hybrid seed companies.
Gallavotti, A., S. Barasesh, S. Malcomber, D. Hall, D. Jackson, R. Schmidt and P. McSteen (2008). sparse inflorescence1 encodes a monocot-specific YUCCA-like gene required for vegetative and reproductive development in maize. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA 105:15196-15201.
Vollbrecht, E. and R. J. Schmidt (2008). Development of the maize inflorescences. In Handbook of Maize: Its Biology, J. Bennetzen and S. Hake eds., Springer LLC pg. 13-40.
Thompson, B.E., L. Bartling, C. Whipple, D.H. Hall, R. J. Schmidt and S. Hake (2009). Bearded-ear encodes a MADS-box transcription factor critical for maize floral development. Plant Cell 21:2578-2590.
Whipple, C.J., D.H. Hall, S. DeBlasio, F. Taguchi-Shiobara, R. J. Schmidt and D.P. Jackson (2010). A conserved mechanism of bract suppression in the grass family. Plant Cell 22:565-578.
Gallavotti, A., J.A. Long, S. Stanfield, X. Yang, D. Jackson, E. Vollbrecht and R. J. Schmidt (2010). The control of axillary meristem fate in the maize ramosa pathway. Development 137:2849-2856.
Gallavotti, A., S. Malcomber, C. Gaines, S. Stanfield, C. Whipple, E. Kellogg, and R.J. Schmidt (2011). Barren stalk fastigiated 1 is an AT-hook protein required for the formation of maize ears. Plant Cell 23: 1756-1771.
Whipple, C.J., T.H. Kebrom, A.L. Weber, F. Yang, D. Hall, R. Meeley, R. J. Schmidt, J. Doebley, T.P. Brutnell, and D.P. Jackson (2011) grassy tillers1 promotes apical dominance in maize and responds to shade signals in the grasses. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA 108:506-512.
Dr. Schmidt received his Ph.D. from Duke University in 1984. As an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Plant Biology he pursued research at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He joined the Department of Biology at UCSD in 1987 and received a McKnight Individual Research Project Award in Plant Biology. He served as a member of the editorial board of The Plant Cell from 1993-1999, and has served on grant review panels for the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation and the University of California Biotechnology Discovery Program. While at UCSD he has served as Campus Director for the University of California Education Abroad Program and as Associate Dean of Education for the Division of Biological Sciences. He currently holds the Paul D. Saltman Endowed Chair in Science Education.
