Dr. Gardner's research interests in plant physiology include mode of action of herbicides and plant growth regulators, photobiology and photomorphogenesis, photosynthesis, and naturally-occurring compounds in plants that benefit human health. His photomorphogenesis research will attempt to identify settings in which manipulation of phytochrome relationships can result in practical agricultural benefit. In this way, research on the role of phytochrome in the natural environment can be extended to the role of phytochrome in the managed environment. In 2000 he organized an effort to start the Center for Plants and Human Health, which he now directs.  The Center is a new interdisciplinary initiative whose purpose is to stimulate collaborative interaction among scientists at the University of Minnesota who are interested in how plants and plant products may be used to improve human health and nutrition. Dr. Gardner is a member of the graduate faculties in Plant Biological Sciences and Applied Plant Sciences.

References:

• Gardner, G. and M.A. Graceffo. 1982. The use of a computerized spectroradiometer to predict phytochrome photoequilibria under polychromatic irradiation. Photochem. Photobiol. 36: 349-354.
• Bures, M.G., C. Black-Schaefer and G. Gardner. 1991. The discovery of novel auxin transport inhibitors by molecular modeling and three-dimensional pattern analysis. J. Computer-Aided Molecular Design 5:323-334.
• Howe, G. T., G. Gardner, W. P. Hackett, and G. R. Furnier. 1996. Phytochrome control of short-day-induced bud set in black cottonwood. Physiologia Plantarum 97:  95-103.
• Howe, G. T., P. A. Bucciaglia, W. P. Hackett, G. R. Furnier, M.-M. Cordonnier-Pratt, and G. Gardner.  1998. Evidence that the Phytochrome Gene Family in Black Cottonwood Has One PHYA Locus, Two PHYB Loci, But Lacks Members of the PHYC/F and PHYE Subfamilies. Molecular Biology and Evolution 15: 160-175.

·         Gardner, G. 2003. The Center for Plants and Human Health:  An Interdisciplinary Approach. NABC Report 14, Foods for Health:  Potential, Perspectives, and Policy, National Agricultural Biotechnology Council, Ithaca, NY pp. 289-298.