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

The lab's research currently involves the following  projects:

Projects focused on root response to drought and nutrient deficiency:

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

• Providing Drought Tolerance to Crop Plants Through Modification of Suberin Deposition in Roots
  Funded by: The Lubin Foundation for 2 years

• Identification and cloning of drought related genes in wheat (T. aestivum)
  Funded by: USA National Academy of Science

• A genomic and physiology approach to understanding the impact of mycorrhizal fungal colonization on root metabolism and nutrient acquisition from nutrient patches
  Funded by: NSF for three years - Environmental Genomic Program

• Functional genomics of root-to-shoot signaling under drought (Recent Past Project)
  Funded by: NSF Plant Genome Program

Projects focused on solute transport:

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

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

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

• genomics