Recognizing Plant Cell first authors: Melissa Roth

Melissa Roth, first author of Regulation of Oxygenic Photosynthesis during Trophic Transitions in the Green Alga Chromochloris zofingiensis

Current Position: Assistant Researcher, Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley

Education: PhD, Marine Biology, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego; BS, Ocean Sciences, Stanford University

Non-scientific Interests: Being in nature, hiking, travelling, adventuring with my family

Brief bio: I am interested in how the environment shapes life, in life that shapes the environment. My research seeks to understand how dynamic abiotic factors such as light, temperature, and nutrients affect organisms and their biology. My graduate research investigated coral population structure and recruitment, the effects of changing temperature and light on corals and their symbiotic algae, and the function of fluorescent proteins in reef-building corals. My postdoctoral research had two themes, one on the physiological adaptations of the coral-algal symbiosis in the low light mesophotic zone and the second on photosynthetic and metabolic regulation in green algae. In my current position, my research focuses on how organisms sense, respond and adapt to a changing environment and focuses on developing an emerging model system of oleaginous algae and the basic research behind improving algae for bioproducts and biofuels.