Blake C. Meyers

he research of the Meyers lab is in the field of plant genomics, studying and characterizing small RNAs and their regulatory roles. Our research utilizes novel approaches and applications of bioinformatics and next-generation sequencing, with an emphasis on understanding the biological functions, evolution, and genomic impact of small RNAs, plus their interconnected functions in DNA methylation and as modulators of gene expression. These studies take place in rice, Arabidopsis, maize, Medicago, soybean and other species. To facilitate our work, we have developed a unique set of analytical and data visualization tools, as well as databases (available at http://mpss.udel.edu). We’re particularly interested in plant microRNAs, their biogenesis, targets, and evolution. Our recent work has characterized plant phased siRNAs (or “phasiRNAs”) as regulators of disease resistance genes and many other protein-coding genes; we have also described novel classes of phasiRNAs in reproductive tissues of grasses and other plant species.