Recognizing Plant Direct authors: Ashley E. Cannon

Ashley E. Cannon, first author of Lipophilic-Signals Lead to Organ-Specific Gene Expression Changes in Arabidopsis Seedlings

Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dr. Kent Chapman’s Lab at The University of North Texas

Education: B.S. in Chemistry from Midwestern State University and Ph.D. in Plant Biology from The University of Texas at Austin

Non-scientific Interests: running, Camp Gladiator community workouts, reading, and spending time with my dogs

Brief bio: I have always been interested in science, but I became fascinated by plant physiology during an honors Botany course at Midwestern State University. After completing two summer internships in Dr. Elison Blancaflor’s lab at The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, I knew that I wanted to pursue a graduate degree in Plant Biology. During my Ph.D., I worked with Dr. Stan Roux at The University of Texas at Austin where I studied the role of extracellular nucleotide gradients in plant gravity responses. In 2016, I joined Dr. Kent Chapman’s lab at UNT, where I focused on identifying the molecular targets and actions of N-acylethanolamines (NAEs), a class of lipid signaling molecules, in Arabidopsis. I will be joining the USDA-ARS Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research unit in Pullman, Washington this summer as a Research Molecular Biologist focused on identifying the biochemical, molecular, and physiological mechanisms that lead to low falling numbers in wheat.