Hans van Veen: Plant Physiology First Author

Hans van Veen, co-first author of “Ethylene augments root hypoxia tolerance via growth cessation and reactive oxygen species amelioration”

Current Position: Post-Doctoral Researcher, Utrecht University

Education: MSc Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (University of Groningen); PhD Plant Sciences (Utrecht University)

Non-scientific Interests: Outdoors, Swimming, Jazz

Brief bio: My main research interest is how plants integrate growth and resource availability to thrive under adverse environmental conditions. In my Post-Doc at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa I identified how gibberellin levels, and associated plant growth, is matched to the plant photosynthetic performance. At Utrecht University I am investigating how extreme tolerance of shoot apical meristems to flooding is related to cessation of growth and/or the utilization and sharing of alternate carbon sources throughout the entire plant. Additionally, I explore phylogenetic signatures of adaptation to flooding among species from key lineages within the Poaceae and Brassicaceae. Our current study published in Plant Physiology shows how a short period of ethylene treatment is sufficient to arrest growth in the root tip and increase tolerance to reactive oxygen species. These acclimations lead to improved tolerance to low oxygen conditions, which are found in the roots of flooded plants.