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I am an Assistant Scientist in the laboratory of Edgar Spalding in the Department of Botany at the University of Wisconsin.

My area of expertise is plant photobiology.

In brief, I am interested in how plants utilize light as a signal to direct their growth and development throughout their life cycle. This process is known as Photomorphogenesis. This is different from photosynthesis where light is used in far greater amounts as a source of energy.

Plants have evolved a number of photoreceptors for the purpose of monitoring light as a signal. Currently, the two largest groups of signaling molecules in plants are the Phytochromes and the Cryptochromes. Using these groups and other photoreceptors, plants are able to monitor and respond to light intensity, quality, and duration. Photoperiodism is probably the most commonly known photomorphogenic response. This is where a plant's fowering process is triggered by a particular photoperiod (roughly known as day length), helping to explain why many plants only flower at certain times of the year.

In my current work (the first four links in the publications at right), I am studying the kinetics of a plant's growth response to light as a model system for learning more about the mechanisms and architecture of the various signal transduction pathways that constitute photomorphogenesis.

Follow the scientific links to the right to learn in more detail what I study in Prof. Spalding's lab. Or head to the bottom for something different.

And please feel free to contact me if you have further questions not answered here.

...Thanks Again!

contacts: e-mail: bmparks@wisc.edu phone: 608-265-5295 fax: 608-262-7509

Pertinent publications:

Parks BM, Folta KM, Spalding EP (2001) Photocontrol of stem growth. Curr Opin Plant Biol. 4: 436-440.

Parks BM, Hoecker U, Spalding EP (2001) Light-induced growth promotion by SPA1 counteracts phytochrome-mediated growth inhibition during de-etiolation. Plant Physiol. 126: 1291-1298.

Parks BM, Spalding EP (1999) Sequential and coordinated action of phytochromes A and B during Arabidopsis stem growth revealed by kinetic analysis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 96: 14142-14146.

Parks BM, Cho MH, Spalding EP (1998) Two genetically separable phases of growth inhibition induced by blue light in Arabidopsis seedlings. Plant Physiol. 118: 609-615.

Parks BM, Quail PH, Hangarter RP (1996) Phytochrome A regulates red-light induction of phototropic enhancement in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 110: 155-162.

Parks BM, Quail PH (1993) hy8, a new class of arabidopsis long hypocotyl mutants deficient in functional phytochrome A. Plant Cell. 5: 39-48.

Background:

Parks BM (2003) The red side of photomorphogenesis. Plant Physiol. 133: 1437-1444.

Wang H, Deng XW (2003) Dissecting the phytochrome A-dependent signaling network in higher plants. Trends Plant Sci 8: 172-178

Nagy F, Schäfer E (2002) Phytochromes control photomorphogenesis by differentially regulated, interacting signaling pathways in higher plants. Annu Rev Plant Biol 53: 329-355

Quail PH (2002) Phytochrome photosensory signalling networks. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 3: 85-93

Smith H (2000) Phytochromes and light signal perception by plants--an emerging synthesis. Nature. 407: 585-591.

Briggs WR, Huala E (1999) Blue-light photoreceptors in higher plants. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol. 15: 33-62.

Special Sections:

A pdf of our poster presented at the 2004 ASPB Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL, July 24th -28th is available here.

Click Here to learn about our high-resolution imaging system used to measure Arabidopsis seedling growth and to see a time-lapsed movie made from those images.

Other things on My Plate

Lab Homepage