Dr Stuart Casson

School of Biosciences

Senior Lecturer

MBB lecturer Stuart Casson
Profile picture of MBB lecturer Stuart Casson
s.casson@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 4235

Full contact details

Dr Stuart Casson
School of Biosciences
Firth Court
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
Profile

Career History

  • 2013 present: Lecturer; School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield
  • 2007 - 2013: Postdoctoral Research Assistant; University of Bristol
  • 2000 - 2007: Postdoctoral Research Assistant; Durham University
  • 1996 - 2000: PhD; Durham University
Qualifications

Honours and distinctions

  • 2008 Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology (FESPB) Young Scientist Award
Research interests

My laboratory is interested in understanding the mechanisms that regulate plant development and in particular, how environmental signals regulate core developmental pathways.

For this purpose I am using stomatal development as a model. Stomata are microscopic pores on the surface of leaves that regulate gas exchange between the plants and their environment, allowing the uptake of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis whilst restricting water loss.

This ability to control their gas exchange has allowed plants to colonise a number of environments and was arguably a crucial evolutionary step in the colonization of the land by higher plants.

My laboratory is interested in understanding the mechanisms that regulate plant development and in particular, how environmental signals regulate core developmental pathways. For this purpose I am using stomatal development as a model.

Stomata are microscopic pores on the surface of leaves that regulate gas exchange between the plants and their environment, allowing the uptake of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis whilst restricting water loss.

This ability to control their gas exchange has allowed plants to colonise a number of environments and was arguably a crucial evolutionary step in the colonization of the land by higher plants.

Stomata can regulate plant gas exchange through short term changes in stomatal aperture. However, my research is focused on a longer term mechanism whereby plants adapt to changes in their environment by regulating their stomatal development, resulting in new leaves with altered stomatal numbers.

Light and CO2 are particularly important in regulating these changes in stomatal development and we are beginning to identify the key components that regulate stomatal development in response to these signals.

Understanding how these environmental signals interact to regulate stomatal development is vital if we are to accurately model plant water use and performance in a changing environment

Publications

Show: Featured publications All publications

Journal articles

All publications

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Aalen RB, Abdel-Wahab YHA, Adams ME, Adan RAH, Ahima RS, Ahmed N, Al-Massadi O, Altstein M, Anouar Y, Anselmi L , Ansorge S et al (2013) Contributors, Handbook of Biologically Active Peptides (pp. xvii-xlix). Elsevier RIS download Bibtex download
  • Adams ME, Ait-Ali D, Allen SD, Altstein M, Amiche M, Anouar Y, Anselmi L, Ansorge S, Antcheva N, Appel JR , Arimura A et al (2006) Contributors, Handbook of Biologically Active Peptides (pp. xix-xxxviii). Elsevier RIS download Bibtex download

Conference proceedings papers

Preprints

Research group

I welcome applications from prospective home / EU / overseas PhD students and post-doctoral fellows.

Postdoctoral researchers

  • Dr Natalia Hurtado-Castano
  • Dr Nick Zoulias

PhD students

  • Magda Dabrowska
  • Kishwar Shethi
  • Julian Adams

Technician

  • Dr Barbora Ndreca
Grants
  • 2019-2023 Leverhulme Trust; Investigating the origin and evolution of stomata (Lead PI, Prof Alistair Hetherington, Bristol; Sheffield lead, Dr Stuart Casson)
  • 2019-2022 Leverhulme Trust; Elucidating metabolic control of photosynthetic membrane structure (PI Dr Matt Johnson; Co-I Dr Stuart Casson)
  • 2019-2022 BBSRC; Improving water use and accelerating breeding pipelines in Mexican avocado (PI Dr Stuart Casson)
  • 2016-2019 BBSRC; Photoreceptor optimisation of plant water use (PI Dr Stuart Casson)
Teaching activities

Level 3 Modules

MBB304 Plant Biotechnology
MBB346 Genetic Pathways from Zygote to Organism

Level 2 Modules

MBB262 Genetics 2

Level 1 Modules

MBB162 Genetics 1