Lenka Kuběnová: Plant Physiology First Author

Lenka Kuběnová, first author of “ROOT HAIR DEFECTIVE 2 vesicular delivery to the apical plasma membrane domain during Arabidopsis root hair development”

Current Position: Ph.D. student/researcher at the Department of Cell Biology, Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Education: Ph.D. (in Biochemistry), MSc and BSc (in Molecular and Cell Biology) Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Non-scientific Interests: sports (namely hiking, running), music, and my family.

Brief bio: I started my career in plant science as a bachelor student investigating root hair growth in Arabidopsis thaliana at the Department of Cell Biology under supervision of prof. Miroslav Ovečka. We are collaborating in my scientific work until now. I started with a study devoted to dynamic properties of the cytoskeleton in Arabidopsis actin mutants, in relation to development and plant response to abiotic stress. My first studies were based on detailed microscopic observations. Spending long hours in the dark and often cold microscopy rooms resulted in my student co-authorship on light-sheet microscopy paper published in Nature Protocols. Our last publication in Plant Physiology quantitatively describes vesicular trafficking of NADPH oxidase and its deposition to the plasma membrane in relation to structural sterols. Currently, I am also studying the mechanism of root hair tip growth in more detail with focus on vesicular trafficking, membrane components and signalling molecules, utilizing high-resolution microscopy methods.