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The School of Biological Sciences

Gerald Edwards

Gerald Edwards

Field of Study: Climate/Photosynthesis
Title: Regents Professor
Degrees: Ph.D., Plant Science, University of California at Riverside
Homepage: Homepage/Lab Web Site Link
Google Scholar:  Google Scholar
Office: 301 Heald
Email: edwardsg@wsu.edu
Phone: 509-335-2539
Fax: 509-335-3184
Mailing Address: School of Biological Sciences
Washington State University
PO Box 644236
Pullman,WA 99164-4236

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I work on mechanisms of photosynthesis, including effects of environmental stress and global climate change, with studies ranging from the cellular to the whole plant level in C3, C4 and CAM plants. Research on C4 photosynthesis is focused on diversity in structure, function and evolution in grasses and eudicot families. This includes studies on species in family Chenopodiaceae from Central Asian Deserts that are adapted to high temperature, drought, and salinity. Research is also being conducted on chenopods which, surprisingly, can perform C4 photosynthesis within individual photosynthetic cells; i.e. without the dual-cell Kranz type anatomy which was previously thought to be required. I am a member of a consortium of scientists whose goal is exploring the potential for genetic engineering of rice, a C3 crop, to perform C4 photosynthesis.

Representative Publications:

  • Giuliani, R, N Koteyeva, E Voznesenskaya, MA Evans, AB Cousins, and GE Edwards. 2013 Coordination of leaf photosynthesis, transpiration and structural traits in rice and wild relatives (genus Oryza). Plant Physiology. 162: 1632-1651
  • von Caemmerer S, G Edwards, N Koteyeva, A Cousins. 2014 Single cell C4 photosynthesis in aquatic and terrestrial plants: a gas exchange perspective. Aquatic Botany. 118: 71-80
  • Koteyeva NK, EV Voznesenskaya, AB Cousins, and GE Edwards. 2014 Differentiation of C4 photosynthesis along a leaf developmental gradient in two Cleome species having different forms of Kranz anatomy. Journal of Experimental Botany. 65:3525-3541. doi:10.1093/jxb/eru042
  • Rosnow J, GE Edwards, EH Roalson. Positive selection of Kranz and nonKranz C4 phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase amino acids in Suaedoideae (Chenopodiaceae). 2014 Journal of Experimental Botany. 65:3595-3607. doi:10.1093/jxb/eru053
  • Rosnow, J, PK Yerramsetty, JO Berry, TW Okita, GE Edwards. 2014 Exploring mechanisms linked to differentiation and function of dimorphic chloroplasts in the single cell C4 species Bienertia sinuspersici. BMC Plant Biology 14:34, doi:10.1186/1471-2229-14-34
  • Koteyeva NK, EV Voznesenskaya, GE Edwards 2015 An assessment of the capacity for phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase to contribute to C4 photosynthesis. Plant Science 235:70-80. doi:10.1016/j.plantsci.2015.03.004
  • Koteyeva NK, EV Voznesenskaya, J Berry, AB Cousins, GE Edwards. 2016 The unique structural and biochemical development of single cell C4 photosynthesis along longitudinal leaf gradients in Bienertia sinuspersici and Suaeda aralocaspica (Chenopodiaceae). J Experimental Botany. 67: 2587-2601. doi:10.1093/jxb/erw08.
  • Voznesenskaya EV, NK Koteyeva, A Cousins, GE Edwards 2018 Diversity in structure and forms of carbon assimilation in photosynthetic organs in Cleome (Cleomaceae). Functional Plant Biology, 45:983-999
  • Giuliani R, S Karki, S Covshoff, H-C Lin, RA Coe, N Koteyeva, WP Quick, S von Caemmerer, RT Furbank, JM Hibberd, GE Edwards, AB Cousins 2019 Knockdown of glycine decarboxylase complex (GDC) alters photorespiratory carbon isotope fractionation in Oryza sativa leaves. J Exp Bot 70: 2773-2786