Genevieve Hoopes: Plant Direct First Author

Genevieve Hoopes, first author of “Keeping time in the dark: potato diel and circadian rhythmic gene expression reveals tissue-specific circadian clocks”

Current Position: Scientist in the Plant Sciences Group at J.R. Simplot Company in Boise, Idaho, USA

Education: PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology at Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI, USA); BS in Biochemistry at University of Wisconsin-Madison (Madison, WI, USA)

Non-Scientific Interests: Hiking, Biking, Camping, Running

Brief Bio: As an undergraduate I worked in Dr. Sebastian Bednarek’s research group studying protein trafficking in Arabidopsis thaliana and became passionate about investigating plant biology for improving agriculture. During my PhD I went on to study the medicinal plant, Calotropis gigantea, and several crops (potato, maize, tepary bean) via genomics and bioinformatics in Dr. C Robin Buell’s research group. I also was awarded the USDA AFRI NIFA Pre-doctoral fellowship to study the circadian control of tuber set in potato, where I worked with Drs. Eva Farre and David Douches using an interdisciplinary approach for investigating the role of the circadian clock in potato biology. I discovered that potato tubers maintain extensive diel and circadian rhythms in gene expression. I also completed an internship during my graduate studies in the Plant Sciences Group at J.R. Simplot Company and am currently one their scientists where I lead several projects and collaborations for potato and strawberry improvement using both gene editing and breeding approaches.