The overall focus of the Schachtman Lab is to understand the mechanisms that roots use to regulate solute transport and to sense or signal changes in soil conditions.    Roots are highly significant organs because they can be viewed as the mineral acquisition system for the terrestrial biosystem.  Most minerals in our diets are acquired by roots from soil. Roots are also able to sense changes in the soil environment.   Roots adapt to the changing soil environment and also send signals to the above ground part of plants regarding the nature of the changes.

"Root Systems of Prairie Plants" by Heidi Natura, ©1995 Conservation Research Institute

Projects focused on root response to drought and nutrient deficiency:

• Functional genomics of root-to-root signaling under drought
  Funded by: NSF Plant Genome Program

• Root potassium and nitrogen sensing and signaling in Arabidopsis and corn
  Funded by: The Monsanto Company

Projects focused on solute transport:

• Identification, characterization, and functional analysis of transport proteins involved in Arabidopsis root-knot nematode-induced feeding sites
  Funded by: DFG – Germany; NSF Integrated Plant Biology Program (in collaboration with Chris Taylor, PI and Erik Nielsen, Co-PI)

• Increasing bioavailable zinc in cassava
  Funded by: The Gates Foundation

• The role of the Arabidopsis KUP transporters in cell expansion, plant development and potassium uptake 

Other Projects:

• Gene discovery in grapevine species
  Funded by: The USDA

We use Arabidopsis as a model dicot species and corn as a model for monocot species.

We use a range of approaches to answer the different questions being addressed in our research projects including:

• whole-plant physiology

• electrophysiology with Xenopus oocytes

• molecular biology

• proteomics