Molecular Plant Sciences

Group Coordinator: Prof Keith Lindsey

Durham has a long-standing record of research in the plant sciences, and is currently supported by significant levels of external grant income from UKRI and industry, with world-leading publications.

Areas of particular research strength are: plant responses to environmental (biotic and abiotic) stresses; developmental biology, with a focus on genetic and epigenetic control of gene expression linked to the development of tissues and organ systems; and cell biology with an emphasis on membrane-cytoskeleton interactions and plant cell signalling, including understanding the architecture and regulation of gene-hormone and second messenger signalling systems.  An important feature of our research is its cross-disciplinary nature, fostered through the Durham Centre for Crop Improvement Technology; with industry; and with a range of UK and overseas academic institutions.

Academic Staff: Dr Tim Hawkins, Prof Jen Topping

Affiliated Members: Prof. Martin Cann, Prof. Ehmke Pohl

Recent Publications

Obomighie, I., Prentice, I. J., Lewin-Jones, P., Bachtiger, F., Ramsay, N., Kishi-Itakura, C., Goldberg, M. W., Hawkins, T. J., Sprittles, J. E., Knight, H., & Sosso, G. C. (2025). Understanding pectin cross-linking in plant cell walls. Communications Biology, 8(1), Article 72 

Xu, Z., Zang, J., Zhang, X., Zheng, Q., Li, Y., Field, N., Fiserova, J., Hua, B., Qu, X., Kriechbaumer, V., Deeks, M. J., Hussey, P. J., & Wang, P. (2025). The ER-PM interaction is essential for cytokinesis and recruits the actin cytoskeleton through the SCAR/WAVE complex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(6), Article e2416927122

Zou, L.-H., Zhu, B., Chen, Y., Lu, Y., Ramkrishnan, M., Xu, C., Zhou, X., Ding, Y., Cho, J., & Zhou, M. (2024). Genetic and epigenetic reprogramming in response to internal and external cues by induced transposon mobilization in Moso bamboo. New Phytologist, 244(5), 1916-1930.

Maple, R., Zhu, P., Hepworth, J., Wang, J.-W., & Dean, C. (2024). Flowering time: from physiology, through genetics to mechanism. Plant Physiology, 195(1), 190–212. 

Martínez-Alarcón, D., Castro-Guillén, J. L., Fitches, E., Gatehouse, J. A., Przyborski, S., Moreno-Celis, U., Blanco-Labra, A., & García-Gasca, T. (2024). Directed Mutagenesis for Arginine Substitution of a Phaseolus acutifolius Recombinant Lectin Disrupts Its Cytotoxic Activity. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 25(24), Article 13258

Nevado, B., Chapman, M. A., Brennan, A. C., Clark, J. W., Wong, E. L. Y., Batstone, T., McCarthy, S. A., Tracey, A., Torrance, J., Sims, Y., Abbott, R. J., Filatov, D., & Hiscock, S. J. (2024). Genomic changes and stabilization following homoploid hybrid speciation of the Oxford ragwort Senecio squalidus. Current Biology, 34(19), 4412-4423.e5

Li, Y., Ma, H., Wu, Y., Ma, Y., Yang, J., Li, Y., Yue, D., Zhang, R., Kong, J., Lindsey, K., Zhang, X., & Min, L. (2024). Single‐Cell Transcriptome Atlas and Regulatory Dynamics in Developing Cotton Anthers. Advanced Science, 11(3), Article 2304017

Qiu, Ping; Li, Jiayue; Zhang, Lin; Chen, Kun; Shao, Jianmin; Zheng, Baoxin; Yuan, Hang; Qi, Jie; Yue, Lin; Hu, Qin; Ming, Yuqing; Liu, Shiming; Long, Lu; Gu, Jiangjiang; Zhang, Xianlong; Lindsey, Keith; Gao, Wei; Wu, Honghong; Zhu, Longfu (2023). Polyethyleneimine-coated MXene quantum dots improve cotton tolerance to Verticillium dahliae by maintaining ROS homeostasis. Nature Communications

Pei, L., Huang, X., Liu, Z., Tian, X., You, J., Li, J., Fang, D., Lindsey, K., Zhu, L., Zhang, X., & Wang, M. (2022). Dynamic 3D genome architecture of cotton fiber reveals subgenome-coordinated chromatin topology for 4-staged single-cell differentiation. Genome Biology

Srivastava, M., Srivastava, A. K., Roy, D., Mansi, M., Gough, C., Bhagat, P. K., Zhang, C., & Sadanandom, A. (2022). The conjugation of SUMO to the transcription factor MYC2 functions in blue light-mediated seedling development in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell, 34(8), 2892-2906.

Gu, X., Fonseka, K., Agneessens, J., Casson, S.A., Smertenko, A., Guo, G., Topping, J.F., Hussey, P.J. & Lindsey, K. (2021). The Arabidopsis R-SNARE VAMP714 is essential for polarization of PIN proteins and auxin responses. New Phytologist 230(2): 550-566.

Jacobsen, A.G.R., Jervis, G., Xu, J., Topping, J.F. & Lindsey, K. (2021). Root growth responses to mechanical impedance are regulated by a network of ROS, ethylene and auxin signalling in Arabidopsis. New Phytologist 231(1): 225-242.

Verma, Vivek, Srivastava, Anjil K., Gough, Catherine, Campanaro, Alberto, Srivastava, Moumita, Morrell, Rebecca, Joyce, Joshua, Bailey, Mark, Zhang, Cunjin, Krysan, Patrick J. & Sadanandom, Ari (2021). SUMO enables substrate selectivity by mitogen-activated protein kinases to regulate immunity in plants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118(10): e2021351118.

Gu, Xiaoyan and Brennan, Adrian and Wei, Wenbin and Guo, Guangqin and Lindsey, Keith (2020) Vesicle transport in plants: a revised phylogeny of SNARE proteins., Evolutionary bioinformatics., 16 

Chivasa, Stephen and Goodman, Heather L. (2020) Stress‐adaptive gene discovery by exploiting collective decision‐making of decentralised plant response systems., New phytologist., 225 (6). pp. 2307-2313.

Smit, M., McGregor, S., Sun, H., Gough, C., Bågman, A.-M., Soyars, C. L., Kroon, J. T. M., Gaudinier, A., Williams, C. J., Yang, X., Nimchuk, Z. L., Weijers, D., Turner, S. R., Brady, S. M. & Etchells, J. P. (2020). A PXY-Mediated Transcriptional Network Integrates Signaling Mechanisms to Control Vascular Development in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell 32(2): 319-335.

Powell, M.E., Bradish, H.M., Cao, M., Makinson, R., Brown, A.P., Gatehouse, J.A. & Fitches, E.C. (2020). Demonstrating the potential of a novel spider venom based biopesticide for target-specific control of the small hive beetle, a serious pest of the European honey bee. Journal of Pest Science 93(1): 391-402.

Liu, Junli, Lenzoni, Gioia & Knight, Marc R. (2020). Design principles for decoding calcium signals to generate specific gene expression via transcription. Plant Physiology 182(4): 1743-1761.

Jackson, S.E., Vernon, I., Liu, J. & Lindsey, K. (2020). Understanding hormonal crosstalk in Arabidopsis root development via emulation and history matching. Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology 19(2): 20180053.

Srivastava, Moumita, Srivastava, Anjil K., Orosa-Puente, Beatriz, Campanaro, Alberto, Zhang, Cunjin & Sadanandom, Ari (2020). SUMO Conjugation to BZR1 Enables Brassinosteroid Signaling to Integrate Environmental Cues to Shape Plant Growth. Current Biology 30(8): 1410-1423.e3.

Wang, Pengwei, Pleskot, Roman, Zang, Jingze, Winkler, Joanna, Wang, Jie, Yperman, Klaas, Zhang, Tong, Wang, Kun, Gong, Jinli, Guan, Yajie, Richardson, Christine, Duckney, Patrick, Vandorpe, Michael, Mylle, Evelien, Fiserova, Jindriska, Van Damme, Daniel & Hussey, Patrick J. (2019). Plant AtEH/Pan1 proteins drive autophagosome formation at ER-PM contact sites with actin and endocytic machinery. Nature Communications 10(1): 5132.

Panter, Paige E., Kent, Olivia, Dale, Maeve, Smith, Sarah J., Skipsey, Mark, Thorlby, Glenn, Cummins, Ian, Ramsay, Nathan, Begum, Rifat A., Sanhueza, Dayan, Fry, Stephen C., Knight, Marc R. & Knight, Heather (2019). MUR1-mediated cell-wall fucosylation is required for freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. New Phytologist 224(2): 1518-1531.

Exposito-Alonso, Moises and Brennan, Adrian C. and Alonso-Blanco, Carlos and Pico, F. Xavier (2018) Spatio-temporal variation in fitness responses to contrasting environments in Arabidopsis thaliana. Evolution., 72 (8). pp. 1570-1586.

Srivastava, Anjil Kumar, Orosa, Beatriz, Singh, Prashant, Cummins, Ian, Walsh, Charlotte, Zhang, Cunjin, Grant, Murray, Roberts, Michael R., Anand, Ganesh Srinivasan, Fitches, Elaine & Sadanandom, Ari (2018). SUMO Suppresses the Activity of the Jasmonic Acid Receptor CORONATINE INSENSITIVE1. The Plant Cell 30(9): 2099-2125.

Martínez, Cristina, Espinosa‐Ruíz, Ana, de Lucas, Miguel, Bernardo‐García, Stella, Franco‐Zorrilla, José M & Prat, Salomé (2018). PIF4‐induced BR synthesis is critical to diurnal and thermomorphogenic growth. The EMBO Journal 37(23): e99552.