Recognizing Plant Cell first authors: Teagen Quilichini
Teagen Quilichini, co-first author of The Transcriptional Landscape of Polyploid Wheats and their Diploid Ancestors during Embryogenesis and Grain Development
Current Position: Assistant Research Officer, National Research Council Canada, Saskatoon, Canada
Education: PhD, Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, 2014. BSc (Hons), University of Calgary, 2008
Non-scientific Interests: playing the cello, singing, scuba diving, travel and other adventures with family, women in science advocacy
Brief bio: I’m fascinated by how plants develop, reproduce and adapt to diverse, challenging environments. My doctoral research provided insight into the formation of the complex, durable polymer encasing pollen grains through the application of leading-edge imaging with genetic and molecular biology tools in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. As an industry-based postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia and Anandia Laboratories Inc., I moved into ‘non-model’ plant research focused on biochemistry and genomics in Cannabis sativa. My research examined how this high-value medicinal plant sequesters its diverse phytochemicals (cannabinoids and terpenes) across the plant body, over development, and within the three-dimensional space of glandular trichomes. Currently, I study the genetic regulation of embryogenesis and seed development in staple food crop species such as wheat, with the goal of advancing fundamental understanding of plant growth and development to create translational opportunities for crop productivity improvement.
