BUCKLER LAB
Uncovering Functional Diversity
Which genes contribute to trait variation in which traits? What can natural variants be used to improve maize adaptation, productivity, and sustainability? This is a hard question as there are ~37,000 genes and ~2,300,000,000 base pairs in a maize genome, but with genomics, field trials, and powerful analysis tools, our community is working to solve this knot.
Bad Mutations & Hybrid Vigor
Development
Our crops are at the basis of people and our livestock's nutrition. While maize main use is to provide starch, protein, and oil to diets, it can also contribute to people health by providing a good source of Vitamin A and E. We research the basis of these traits and collaborate with colleagues to see this put into practice.
Crops must carefully control their development in order to be adapted to their local environment. Genetics very strongly determines the flowering time, root size, leaf shape, height, leaf angle, tassel shape, and ear shape. We collaborate with colleagues to unravel these genes controlling all of these traits.
Nutrition
Our crops are at the basis of people and our livestock's nutrition. While maize main use is to provide starch, protein, and oil to diets, it can also contribute to people health by providing a good source of Vitamin A and E. We research the basis of these traits and collaborate with colleagues to see this put into practice.
Abiotic Stress
How does a crop deal with drought, little nitrogen, or cold temperatures? These all just a few of the abiotic (non-biological) stresses that a crop must deal with every year. We collaborate on research involving drought, nitrogen, and acid soil (aluminum) tolerance, and we are leading efforts to find freeze tolerance to make over winter maize a crop.