Romola Davenport

Post - Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow

Cambridge University Address
Department of Plant Sciences
University of Cambridge
Downing Street, Cambridge.
CB2 3EA. United Kingdom.

Main research topics

Romola Davenport is interested the uptake and distribution of cations within plants. These are essential for plant growth and metabolism but may cause toxicity at excessive amounts.

Her main area of research is in is sodium transport. We are especially interested in this as most crop plants cannot exclude sodium adequately and suffer loss of yields in salty soils. In wheat and Arabidopsis sodium is able to enter roots via nonselective cation channels.

Selected publications

Tester M, Davenport R. 2003. Na+ tolerance and Na+ transport in higher plants. Annals of Botany 91: 503-27.

Davenport RJ, Tester M (2000) A weakly voltage-dependent, nonselective cation channel mediates toxic sodium influx in wheat. Plant Physiology, 122: 823-834.


Julia Davies

Post - Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow

Main research topics

Julia Davies is interested in roles of ion transport proteins in plant and fungal cell biology. The aim is to find channels that may serve as biocidal targets, and to further understand the contribution of plasma membrane permeable channel proteins to cell growth and environmental sensing. To faciltate our research she makes use of biophysical, radioisotope flux analysis and ratiometric imaging methods.

Selected publications

Foreman, J, Demidchik V, Bothwell JHF, Mylona P, Miedema H, Torres MA, Linstead P Costa S, Brownlee C, Jones JDG, Davies JM & Dolan L (2003) Reactive oxygen species produced by NADPH oxidase regulate plant cell growth. Nature 422, 442-446.

Demidchik V, Bowen HC, Maathuis FJM, Shabala SN, Tester MA, White PJ & Davies JM (2002) Arabidopsis thaliana root non-selective cation channels mediate calcium uptake & are involved in growth. Plant Journal 32, 799-808.


Chris Gilligan

Post - Professor of Mathematical Biology

Main research topics

Chris Gilligan is interested in analysing factors that influence and control the invasion, persistence and variability of disease. Chris carries out this work by a combining modelling and experimentation. He is especially interested in spatial and temporal dynamics of soil-borne microorganisms. In order to create models that may help in the control of epidemics, experimental data is corelated with theory, with most work focussed upon plant disease in both farmed and natural environments.

Selected publications

Otten, W., Filipe, J. & Gilligan, C. A. (2005) Dynamics of contact structure and disease transmission in mixed species populations: an analysis of damping-off epidemics. Ecology. 86: 1948-1957.

Keeling, M. Brooks, S.P., Gilligan, C.A. (2004) Using conservation of pattern to approximate spatial parameters from a single snapshot. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 101: 9155-9160.


Beverley Glover

Post - Senior Lecturer

Main research topics

Beverley is interested in understanding how single gene products control different aspects of plant development and in the evolution of developmental programmes. Her molecular work is mainly carried out in Arabidopsis thaliana and Antirrhinum majus. For her evolutionary work many more plants are used, including but not limited to investigating monocots ( grasses), basal angiosperms (Magnolia) and older plant lineages ( mosses).

The current focus of the lab is the evolution of petal cell form and anther structure.

Selected publications

Ramsay, N. & Glover, B.J. (2005) The MYB/MYC/bHLH complex and the evolution of cellular diversity. Trends in Plant Science 10, 63-70.

Glover, B.J. & Martin, C. (2002) Evolution of adaptive petal cell morphology. In "Developmental Genetics and Plant Evolution", eds. Cronk, Q.C.B., Bateman, R.M Hawkins, J.A., pp 160-172.

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