Natural variation

Glucosinolate profiles vary natural between accessions of Arabidopsis (shown are HPLC-DAD chromatograms from glucosinolate analyses).

All organisms must coordinate a phenomenal array of highly interconnected metabolic processes to efficiently obtain and use resources in order to maximize their fitness. This intricate coordination of biological processes relies on naturally variable regulatory networks likely reflecting an adaptation to survival in different environments.

We exploit the naturally variation in glucosinolate profiles in Arabidopsis and the regulatory networks that shape these profiles to elucidate new network components. Although we have identified nearly all of the major genes controlling natural variation in glucosinolates in the past decade, there are hundreds of additional genes that remain to be studied.

Most of these have very modest or conditional effects that complicate their identification, but their identification will be critical to understand the glucosinolate regulatory network and its interconnectivity to networks controlling general metabolic and developmental processes.