- Department of Plant Sciences
Daniel Kliebenstein studies two major questions using biochemical genomics.
The first question focuses on how and why plants make secondary metabolites using Arabidopsis thaliana to study how its secondary metabolites control interactions with insects and fungi. To do this, researchers in the lab use a mixture of functional genetics, quantitative genetics, plant biology, evolutionary biology and metabolite profiling to develop as in depth and broad a picture as possible.
The second major question is how and why organisms have genetic variation. To ask this question, the lab uses the same secondary metabolites as phenotypes to help us study and develop methodology to understand the underpinnings of quantitative genetics and genomics.
In addition, the lab is developing a new model organism for quantitative biochemical genomics: the fungus Botrytis cinerea that produces a suite of secondary metabolites whose main role is to allow the fungus to kill plant cells. This is allowing us to combine the network tools to look at how the genomes of both Arabidopsis and Botrytis interact and to analyze how organisms can combat each other through metabolism.