Daniel Szymanski

Title:

Professor

PhD Granting Institution:

University of Illinois

Contact:

Email Address: dszyman@purdue.edu
Office Phone: 765-494-8092
Lab Website Link: https://ag.purdue.edu/agry/Pages/profile.aspx?strAlias=szymandb&intDirDeptID=7

Primary Training Group:

Plant Biology

Secondary Training Groups:

Computational and Systems Biology

Current Projects:

The organization of the microtubule and actin filament cytoskeleton arrays plays an important role in defining cell shape and tissue development. However, there is very little mechanistic understanding of how the cytoskeletons are organized and regulated. For example, how do hormonal signals lead to cytoskeletal re-organization and a polarized growth response? What cellular intermediaries define cytoskeletal organization and pattern the cell wall during growth? The long-term goal of my research team is to analyze the multiscale control of growth from protein complexes to the morphogenetic control of cells, tissues, and organs. Arabidopsis leaf epidermal development is being used as an experimental model to better understand morphogenesis control. The leaf epidermis contains several highly polarized cell types that display unique responses to microtubule and microfilament disrupting agents. The lab is now using modern molecular genetic tools, multivariate live cell imaging, and finite element computational modeling of plant morphogenesis to discover how plants integrate cytoskeletal and cell wall systems during growth and development. The lab also has created new high throughput proteomic methods to analyze the location and composition of protein complexes in a variety of plant species, cell types, and differing genetic or environmental conditions.