Part of the “Self Reflection” series by and for early-career researchers In the era of digital media, science communication has advanced in an unprecedented way. Several years ago, we used to subscribe printed magazines and journals. Scientists prefer to subscribe digital version of magazines, journals and blogs these days as it provides instant access. Digital […]
About you Describe your journey from student to newly appointed faculty I did my undergraduate at Barnard College, it’s the Women’s College at Columbia University in New York City. New York City is not the first place you would expect to fall in love with Plant Science, but I ended up taking a couple […]
Plants’ invasion of land was accompanied by the evolution of a root system which in seed plants includes a fast gravitropic response. Gravitropism occurs through three distinct steps – (1) gravity perception by dense starch-filled amyloplasts, (2) transmission of gravitropic signal by auxin through auxin influx (AUX1/LAX) and efflux (PIN) carriers, (3) gravity-stimulated root growth […]
Symmetric cell division leads to proliferation, and asymmetric cell division establishes differential growth. Formation of lateral roots (LRs) depends on asymmetric division of initially symmetric founder cells. Barro et al. studied the mechanism of asymmetric radial expansion by analyzing cytoskeleton dynamics using mutants, pharmacological drugs, and tissue-specific perturbation. They expressed MAP4 (MICROTUBULE-ASSOCIATED PROTEIN4) specifically in […]
Describe your journey from student to newly appointed faculty I grew up on the Iowa/Illinois border in the heart of the corn belt. Despite being surround by the golden waves of grain, I did not start working on plants until later in my career. My undergraduate degree was in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University. […]
About you Describe your journey from student to newly appointed faculty Childhood & schooling: countryside in Central Eastern Finland. Undergrad: Biological Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK (2003-2006). PhD with Julian Hibberd, University of Cambridge, UK (2006-2010). Two years of travels and short-term science jobs, including short stints with: Arja Tervahauta, University of Eastern Finland (2010), […]
Lateral roots help plants to explore the soil and environmental conditions. Waidmann et al. took advantage of natural variants to understand lateral growth angle by analyzing gravitropic set point angle (GSA). Using Col-0 as a reference, lines that over- or under-respond (steeper or shallower root angle) were identified. From their genome-wide association study, the authors […]
Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) is the precursor of the hormone auxin and it controls the formation of lateral roots. Evidence suggests that IBA is converted to IAA, endogenous active auxin. The major study material to distinguish between IBA and IAA was highlighted by the IBA-specific efflux carrier ABCG36/PDR8/PEN3, and abcg36 mutant hyperaccumulates IBA in the root. […]
About you Hi All, If you are more of a 140-character type like me, the summary of the interview below is “There is nothing magical about being a faculty in academia. Even a very ordinary person can make it, provided that he is surrounded by great colleagues and tries hard enough.” The real question is […]