Willard L.

Koukkari

Emeritus faculty
Plant and Microbial Biology

Research interests

My research focuses on the physiology of plant growth and development, especially as it relates to timing mechanisms. In plants and insects, as in other organisms, biological rhythms and oscillation are integral components of timing and are found at all levels of organismal complexity. The list of biological variables that oscillate range from the molecular to the ecosystem level. Over the years, research in my laboratory has been directed towards examining time responses at these levels, with an emphasis upon such processes and variables as enzyme activity, plant development, photomorphogenesis, leaf movements, circumnutations, plant hormones, herbicides, and environmental stress.

Selected publications

Sothern, R.B., Tseng, T.S., Orcutt, S.L., Olszewski, N.E., Koukkari, W.L. 2002. Gigantea and spindly genes linked to the clock pathway tht controls circadian characteristics of transpiration in Arabidopsis. Chronobiol Int. 19(6):1005-22.

Sothern, R.B., Hermida, R.C., Nelson, R., Mojon, A. and Koukkari, W.L. 1998. Reanalysis of filter-feeding behavior of caddis fly (Brachycentrus) larvae reveals masking and circadian rhythmicity. Chronobiol. Int. 15(6):595-606.

Koukkari, W.L., C. Bingham, J.D. Hobbs, and S. H. Duke. 1997. In search of a biological hour. Journal of Plant Physiology 151:352-357.

Anderson-Bernadas, C., G. Cornelissen, C.M. Turner, and W. L. Koukkari. 1997. Rhythmic nature of thigmormorphogenesis and thermal stress of Phaseolus vulgaris L. shoots. Journal of Plant Physiology 151: 575-580.