Arabidopsis thaliana, the thale cress, mouse-ear cress or arabidopsis, is a small plant from the mustard family (Brassicaceae), native to Eurasia and Africa. Commonly found along the shoulders of roads and in disturbed land, it is generally considered a weed.
Gibberellins (GAs) are plant hormones that regulate various developmental processes, including stem elongation, germination, dormancy, flowering, flower development, and leaf and fruit senescence. GAs are one of the longest-known classes of plant hormone. It is thought that the selective breeding of crop strains that were deficient in GA synthesis was one of the key drivers of the "green revolution" in the 1960s, a revolution that is credited to have saved over a billion lives worldwide.
Abscisic acid is a plant hormone. ABA functions in many plant developmental processes, including seed and bud dormancy, the control of organ size and stomatal closure. It is especially important for plants in the response to environmental stresses, including drought, soil salinity, cold tolerance, freezing tolerance, heat stress and heavy metal ion tolerance.
Christopher John Leaver is an Emeritus Professorial Fellow of St John's College, Oxford who served as Sibthorpian Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford from 1990 to 2007.
Jonathan Dallas George Jones is a senior scientist at the Sainsbury Laboratory and a professor at the University of East Anglia using molecular and genetic approaches to study disease resistance in plants.
Florigen is the hypothesized hormone-like molecule responsible for controlling and/or triggering flowering in plants. Florigen is produced in the leaves, and acts in the shoot apical meristem of buds and growing tips. It is known to be graft-transmissible, and even functions between species. Florigen has been found identical to the transcription factor FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT).
Sir David Charles Baulcombe is a British plant scientist and geneticist. As of 2017 he is a Royal Society Research Professor. From 2007 to 2020 he was Regius Professor of Botany in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge.
Paclobutrazol (PBZ) is the ISO common name for an organic compound that is used as a plant growth retardant and triazole fungicide. It is a known antagonist of the plant hormone gibberellin, acting by inhibiting gibberellin biosynthesis, reducing internodal growth to give stouter stems, increasing root growth, causing early fruitset and increasing seedset in plants such as tomato and pepper. PBZ has also been shown to reduce frost sensitivity in plants. Moreover, paclobutrazol can be used as a chemical approach for reducing the risk of lodging in cereal crops. PBZ has been used by arborists to reduce shoot growth and shown to have additional positive effects on trees and shrubs. Among those are improved resistance to drought stress, darker green leaves, higher resistance against fungi and bacteria, and enhanced development of roots. Cambial growth, as well as shoot growth, has been shown to be reduced in some tree species.
GAI or Gibberellic-Acid Insensitive is a gene in Arabidopsis thaliana which is involved in regulation of plant growth. GAI represses the pathway of gibberellin-sensitive plant growth. It does this by way of its conserved DELLA motif.
George Michael Coupland FRS is a Scottish plant scientist, and Research Scientist and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research.
Catherine Rosemary Martin is a Professor of Plant Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and project leader at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, co-ordinating research into the relationship between diet and health and how crops can be fortified to improve diets and address escalating chronic disease globally.
Michael Webster Bevan is a professor at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK.
Liam Dolan is a Senior Group Leader at the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (GMI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Sherardian Professor of Botany in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.
Jane Elizabeth Parker is a British scientist who researches the immune responses of plants at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research.
Alison Mary Smith is a British biologist. She is Strategic Programme Leader at the John Innes Centre in Norwich and an Honorary Professor at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK.
Ian Alexander Graham is a professor of Biochemical Genetics in the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) at the University of York.
Peter John Davies is a professor emeritus of Plant Physiology in the Departments of Plant Biology and Horticulture at Cornell University who is notable for his work on plant development, plant hormones, and in educating the public on agricultural technology and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as a Jefferson Science Fellow from 2011 to 2014. As a Jefferson Science Fellow Davies monitored developments in agriculture and food security, monitored the status of biotech crops in Europe, and provided input to promote the acceptance of these crops on a scientific basis.
Sarah Wyatt is an American, plant molecular biologist. She is a Professor in the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology at Ohio University, as well as director of the Ohio University Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Wyatt's research interests include molecular biology, genomics, and signaling events. She is considered one of the world's experts on gravitational signaling in plants, and some of her recent research includes an experiment on board the International Space Station (ISS).
Katrien M. Devos is an American plant geneticist who is distinguished research professor at the University of Georgia. Her research considers the structure, function and evolution of the genomes of grasses. In particular, Devos considers halophytic turfgrasses, cereals and bioenergy crops. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2016.
Stacey Harmer is a chronobiologist whose work centers on the study of circadian rhythms in plants. Her research focuses on the molecular workings of the plant circadian clock and its influences on plant behaviors and physiology. She is a professor in the Department of Plant Biology at the University of California, Davis.
