Anna Stepanova
Associate Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology, GGA Executive Committee Member
Thomas Hall 2501A
Bio
Unlike mobile animals, sessile plants spend their lives in a fixed place and, being unable to move away, have to endure and withstand harsh conditions of their environment. To cope with this challenge, plants have learned to adapt to their surroundings by modifying their metabolic activity, growth rates and patterns. Our earlier work has focused on the elucidation of the role of two key plant hormones, auxin and ethylene, in the phenotypic plasticity of root growth and has uncovered a previously unknown ethylene-mediated regulation of auxin biosynthesis. Adequate levels of auxin production, perception, signaling, and response were found to be required for the ethylene-triggered morphological changes. Current efforts of the lab continue to center around plant hormones, specifically the mechanisms of ethylene signal transduction, auxin biosynthesis, hormone pathways’ crosstalk, and translational regulation of hormone responses. We are employing a combination of classical and molecular genetics, cell biology, genomics, and synthetic biology in Arabidopsis and tomato to decipher the basic molecular mechanisms governing plant adaptation and phenotypic plasticity.
Education
Ph.D. Biology University of Pennsylvania 2001
B.S. Biology University of Nevada 1995
Area(s) of Expertise
Plant Molecular Genetics
Publications
- A rapid and scalable approach to build synthetic repetitive hormone-responsive promoters , PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL (2024)
- Arabidopsis as a model for translational research , PLANT CELL (2024)
- Deciphering the molecular basis of tissue-specific gene expression in plants: Can synthetic biology help? , CURRENT OPINION IN PLANT BIOLOGY (2022)
- To Fight or to Grow: The Balancing Role of Ethylene in Plant Abiotic Stress Responses , PLANTS-BASEL (2022)
- Auxin Interactions with Other Hormones in Plant Development , Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology (2021)
- Broadening the impact of plant science through innovative, integrative, and inclusive outreach , PLANT DIRECT (2021)
- Editorial overview: Toward deciphering the molecular basis of plant phenotypic plasticity , CURRENT OPINION IN PLANT BIOLOGY (2021)
- Leveraging synthetic biology approaches in plant hormone research , Current Opinion in Plant Biology (2021)
- Leveraging synthetic biology approaches in plant hormone research , CURRENT OPINION IN PLANT BIOLOGY (2021)
- Plant Biology Research: What Is Next? , FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE (2021)