Welcome to the Schrick Lab
Welcome to the Schrick Lab in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. Our research bridges genetics and molecular biology as well as biochemistry and evolutionary biology!
Our lab is affiliated with the Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Graduate Group (BMBGG), Molecular Cellular Developmental Biology Program (MCDB), the Genetics Interdepartmental Graduate Program, the Ecological Genomics Institute, the Ecology, Evolution and Genomics Program (EEG), the Kansas Lipidomics Research Center, and the Johnson Center for Basic Cancer Research.
Integrating growth and signaling networks in development
How does an embryo arise from a single cell? Plant embryos establish an apical-basal axis comprised of organized tissues during early development. Among the tissues formed are stem cell populations that give rise to the shoot and the root. Our lab is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms that govern how plant cells differentiate.
Within the last ~15 years, characterization of a group of sterol biosynthesis mutants of Arabidopsis revealed that sterol composition is crucial for cell-type differentiation. We are investigating the molecular functions of sterols in plants using genetics interfaced with systems biology platforms in genomics, proteomics, and lipidomics. Our quest to identify new lipid-binding signaling proteins has led to our study of plant-specific homeodomain transcription factors that contain START domains. Related to this, we are investigating evolutionary mechanisms that led to the emergence of the land plants from the Charophycean green algae ~450 million years ago. Learn more about our research by navigating this website.
