Research Interests:
My research focuses on symbiotic interactions between plants and fungal endophytes. The endophytes reside entirely within plant tissues and adapt plants to environmental stresses such as drought, salinity, heat and heavy metals. Without the appropriate endophyte, plants do not survive exposure to environmental stresses even though they may have evolved in high stress habitats. Current laboratory studies are focused on characterizing the molecular, genetic, and physiological bases of how fungal endophytes adapt plants to abiotic and biotic stresses. Current ecological studies are focused on utilizing symbiotic technologies to: mitigate impacts of climate change on plants, improve soil remediation and habitat restoration efforts, manage invasive plants, and improve agricultural productivity. |
Selected Publications:
Rodriguez RJ, White JFJ, Arnold AE, Redman RS. 2008. Fungal endophytes: diversity and functional roles. Tansley Review, New Phytologist. 182(2):314-30.
Rodriguez RJ, Freeman DC, McArthur ED, Kim YO, Redman RS. 2009. Symbiotic Regulation Of Plant Growth, Development And Reproduction. Communicative & Integrative Biology, 2(2): 1-3.
Rodriguez R.J. and Redman R.S. 2008. More Than 400 Million Years Of Evolution And Some Plants Still Can't Make It On Their Own: Plant Stress Tolerance Via Fungal Symbiosis. Journal of Experimental Botany, 59:1109-1114.
Rodriguez R.J., Henson J., Van Volkenburgh E., Hoy M., Wright L., Beckwith F., Kim Y., Redman R.S. 2008. Stress Tolerance in Plants via Habitat-Adapted Symbiosis. ISME-Nature, 2:404–416.
Márquez L.M., Redman R.S., Rodriguez R.J., Roossinck M.J. 2007. A virus in a fungus in a plant – three way symbiosis required for thermal tolerance. Science, 315:513-515.
Redman, R.S., Sheehan, K.B., Stout, R.G., Rodriguez, R.J. and Henson, J.M. 2002. Thermotolerance generated by plant/fungal symbiosis. Science, 298:1581.
Teaching Interests:
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