research interests
Our main aim is to investigate leaf development and the variation in leaf shape. We are characterising the roles of a number of important genes from Antirrhinum and Arabidopsis that interact to specify growth, cell fate, and proliferation. We employ a variety of approaches in genetics, molecular biology, and morphometry. Through the interpretation of mutant phenotypes, the analysis of genetic interactions, and RNA in situ hybridization to reveal gene expression patterns, we aim to understand the function of genes across a variety of plant families important to plant evolution, and key crop species.
keywords: [plant development] [plant genetics] [leaf shape] [variation] [LeafAnalyser] [arabidopsis] [antirrhinum] [leaf development] [plant architecture]
current lab members
Vera Matser - White Rose funded PhD student - joint with Prof Brendan Davies, University of Leeds
discoveries
We have recently developed a high throughput and semi automated system to quantify variation in leaf shape in wild-type plants, leaf shape mutants and wild species. Our method incorporates an automated statistical analysis that reveals the major components contributing to leaf shape variation.
Our new system is called LeafAnalyser - visit the website for more information, instructions and to download a version of the software.
collaboration
The LeafAnalyser project is part of a collaboration with Dan Parnham. The lab focusses on the Biology, leaving the rest to Dan
publications
Weight C, Parnham, D, Waites, R. (2008) LeafAnalyser: a computational method for rapid and large-scale analyses of leaf shape variation. The Plant Journal 53 (3), 578-586 doi:10.1111/j.1365-313X.2007.03330.x
Ingram GC, Waites R (2006) Current Opinion in Plant Biology 9 (1): 12-20
Barley R, Waites R (2002) Current Biology 12:R696-R698
Waites, R. and Hudson, A. (2001) Development 128:1923-1931
Waites R, Simon R (2000) Cell 103:835-838