Below are some key publications from our lab. For a full publication list, check Ronald’s ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5320-6817 or Google Scholar 

Primary Research papers

Van Gelderen K, van der Velde K, Kang CK, Hollander J, Koppenol A, Petropoulos O, Prasetyaningrum P, Akyüz T and Pierik R (2025). Gibberellin transport affects lateral root growth through HY5 in responses to far-red light. The Plant Cell, 37, koaf200. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koaf200 

Gautrat P, Buti S, Romanowski A, Lammers M, Matton SEA, Buijs G and Pierik R (2024). Phytochome-dependent responsiveness to root-derived cytokinins enables coordinated elongation responses to combined light and nitrate cues. Nature Communications 15:8489. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52828-y

Pantazopoulou CK, Buti S, Nguyen CT, Oskam L, Weits DA, Farmer EE, Kajala K and Pierik R (2023). Mechanodetection of neighbor plants elicitis adaptive leaf movements through calcium dynamics. Nature Communications 14: 5827. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41530-0 

Küpers JJ, Snoek BL, Oskam L, Pantazopoulou CK, Matton SEA, Reinen E, Liao CY, Eggermont EDC, Weekamp H, Kohlen W, Wijers D and Pierik R (2023) 
Local light signalling at the leaf tip drives remote differential petiole growth through auxin-gibberellin dynamics. Current Biology, 33: 75-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.11.045 

Hayes S, Pantazopoulou CK, van Gelderen K, Reinen E, Tween AL, Sharma A, de Vries M, Prat S, Schuurink RC, Testerink C and Pierik R (2019) Soil salinity limits plant shade avoidance. Current Biology 29, 1169-1676.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.03.042
https://neilercomics.com/2018/04/13/salt-in-the-shadows/ for an awesome comics-style review of a preprint of this paper.

Reviews

Gautrat P, Matton SEA, Oskam L, Shetty SS, van der Velde KJ and Pierik R (2025). Lights, location, action: shade avoidance signalling over spatial scales. Journal of Experimental Botany 76, 695-711. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erae217 

Pierik R and Ballaré CL. (2021) Control of plant growth and defence by photoreceptors: from mechanisms to opportunities in agriculture. Molecular Plant 14: 61-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2020.11.021

Huber M*, Nieuwendijk NM*, Pantazopoulou CK and Pierik R (2020)
Light signalling shapes plant-plant interactions in dense canopies. Plant, Cell and Environment 44: 1014-1029. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.13912

Kupers JJ, van Gelderen K & Pierik R. (2018) Location matters: Canopy light responses over spatial scales. Trends Plant Sci. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2018.06.011