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With the advent of molecular techniques and increased environmental consciousness,
the scope of research and interest in the plant sciences is broadening and becoming increasingly interdisciplinary.
This implies a future demand for graduates with broad and thorough training in diverse aspects of the plant
sciences. Graduate Studies in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University allow a large degree of flexibility and
promote an interdisciplinary and individually tailored graduate education in the plant sciences leading to
MS and PhD degrees in Plant Biology.
- Biotechnology:
Expression of heterologous genes I plants, including human genes of pharmaceutical interest and genes from pathogenic
organisms for vaccine production; production, chemical analysis and biological activity of plant secondary metabolites;
development of plant enzymes for clinical use and nanotechology.
- Molecular Genetics/Molecular Biology:Targeted mutagenesis of photosynthesis-related
genes in cyanobacteria and green algae; biochemical and biophysical analysis of genetically engineered organisms;
chloroplast gene expression; plant tissue culture; plant transformation; derivation of anti-cancer drugs from plants;
molecular biology of rubber formation; regulation of nuclear gene expression; plant signal transduction pathways.
- Cell Biology/Physiology/Photosynthesis: Structure, function and development of
organelles; mechanisms of energy transduction; protein biochemistry; photobiology of vascular and nonvascular plants;
interaction of environmental stress factors and plant productivity; Crassulacean acid metabolism; biochemistry of oxygen
evolution in photosynthesis; physiology of plant-fungal interactions; mechanisms of membrane assembly during chloroplast
development.
- Ecology/Environmental Biology:Analysis of arctic, desert, riparian, and forest
ecosystems; autoecology and ecophysiology of desert plants; population and chemical ecology; the impact of human
activities on ecosystems and ecosystem response to perturbation and reclamation; mineral cycling; microbial ecology
and wetland ecology; effect of air pollution on lichens, vascular plants, and ecosystems; aquatic ecology and water
quality of southwestern lakes and streams; molecular analysis of the impact of environmental factors.
- Mycology/Phycology/Lichenology: Fungal and algal cell wall chemistry; ultrastructure
and storage products; developmental morphology and life cycles of algae and fungi; cell growth and development in fungi;
endolithic algae; ecology; and physiology of lichens.
- Paleobotany: Phylogeny, systematics, phytogeography and structure of fossil plants;
anatomically preserved plant fossils of Carboniferous and Tertiary; evolution of isoetalean lycopsids; plant fossils from
Arizona.
- Systematics/Taxonomy: Cytogenetics and hybridization studies in the Cactaceae and
Compositae; systematics of the Myrtaceae in Latin America; floristics of the southwestern U.S., northern Mexico, and
Chile; chemosystematics of plants, particularly the Bromeliaceae and Compositae; molecular evolution; lichen flora of
the Sonoran Desert region, Parmeliaceae in the Neotropics; molecular phylogenetics of papilionoid legumes, Fabaceae.
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