Systems Analysis of Auxin Transport in the Arabidopsis Root Apex

Author Profile

Leah Band and Darren Wells

Leah Band

Current Position: Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Centre for Plant Integrative Biology, University of Nottingham, U.K.

Education: PhD in Applied Mathematics, School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham.

Non-scientific Interests: Playing the violin, dancing, looking after my baby girl.

I have always loved mathematics and have been keen to use it to understand the world around us. Hence, after completing a PhD in Applied Mathematics, I was fortunate to join the University of Nottingham's Centre for Plant Integrative Biology (CPIB) led by Charlie Hodgman and Malcolm Bennett. CPIB gave me the opportunity to work alongside experimental biologists, computer scientists and engineers, and I soon became fascinated by the complexities of plants. A key theme of the Centre was to investigate how auxin co-ordinates root development. My modelling skills were clearly well suited to understanding the roles of the different auxin carriers. Using new experimental and computational tools, which had been developed within CPIB and by our collaborators, we were able to contruct and test a detailed model of auxin transport within the root tip and reveal the key role of the AUX1 influx carriers.

Darren Wells

Current Position: Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Plant Integrative Biology, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, U.K.

Education: PhD in Plant Biophysics, Rothamsted Research/University of London.

Non-scientific Interests: Modern art, literature and Arsenal Football Club (not necessarily in that order).

My PhD studies focused on the biophysics of nutrient uptake in Chara internodes and Arabidopsis roots and I have been researching aspects of the functional physiology of roots ever since. Any study of root development and behavioral responses inevitably leads to a study of auxin, and I am particularly interested in root tropisms, the study of which requires an understanding of the dynamic responses to hormone distribution. This current study represents an important step in that direction and showcases the utility of systems approaches in answering biological problems. I consider myself fortunate that, from my PhD onwards, I have conducted my research within multidisciplinary teams. The new techniques and insights brought to biological problems by such teams are helping to shed new light on some of the longer-standing questions in plant biology and make for a truly rewarding (and challenging) research environment.