My research stems froms my interest in the ability of plants to respond to environmental stimuli and to initiate intracellular signaling cascades. Calcium is a key signal transducing molecule in plants. I work on genes that encode Calcium Dependent Protein Kinases, unique calcium sensing molecules that function within plant cells to phosphorylate other proteins in reponse to elevated intracellular calcium levels. Many stimuli cause an increase in intracellular calcium levels in plant cells including, but not limited to, light, gravity, wounding and osmotic stress. Students in my lab have been involved in cloning members of the CDPK gene family in zucchini. The goal of isolating these genes and studying their expression is to explore the hypothesis that different members of the gene family are expressed in different tissues and in response to different stimuli. Students working on these projects have an opportunity to use techniques such as PCR, rtPCR, Northern blot analysis and DNA sequencing and analysis to address these questions.