Kyle Palos: The Plant Cell First Author

Kyle Palos, first author of “Identification and functional annotation of long intergenic non-coding RNAs in Brassicaceae”

Current Position: Postdoctoral scientist at the Boyce Thompson Institute with Dr. Andrew Nelson.

Education: PhD in Plant Science from the University of Arizona with Dr. Mark Beilstein. BS in Biology from the University of California, Riverside.

Non-scientific interests: All things relating to coffee, technology, and baking.

Brief bio:

My scientific journey started in the lab of Dr. Patricia Springer at UC Riverside where I had the opportunity to study a transcription factor involved in meristem-organ boundary maintenance in Arabidopsis thaliana. My time in Dr. Springer’s lab sparked my interest in plant biology research and provided an excellent foundation for graduate training.

I then went on to complete a PhD advised by Dr. Mark Beilstein at the University of Arizona. Dr. Beilstein’s lab has a wide range of research interests, all of which are united by the goal to better understand how biological systems are conserved. My research in the Beilstein lab focused on long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the Brassicaceae (the plant family with the Arabidopsis and Brassica genera, among many others). Specifically, I was interested in annotating and characterizing lncRNA repertoires from four model Brassicaceae species using publicly available RNA-seq data. This project resulted in our recent Plant Cell publication.

I am now working with Dr. Andrew Nelson at the Boyce Thompson Institute as a postdoctoral scientist. I am interested how RNAs are modified during abiotic stress, whether these stress induced modifications are conserved among related species, and whether RNA modifications can be manipulated to enhance agricultural productivity.