Recognizing Plant Physiology authors: China Lunde

China Lunde, first author of A mixed-linkage (1,3;1,4)-β-D-glucan specific hydrolase mediates dark-triggered degradation of this plant cell wall polysaccharide

Current Position: Staff Research Associate IV, UC Berkeley, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology in the laboratories of Drs. Sarah Hake, Ksenia Krasileva and Jacob Brunkard

Education: BS Cornell University, MS Oregon State University

Non-scientific Interests: cooking, food, hiking, and gardening

Brief Bio: When I was a teenager, my first career goal was to breed a seedless pomegranate so, having been raised in Western NY, I found the nearest plant breeding program for undergraduates, in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. There, I had an excellent plant genetics course and worked in Dr. Martha Mutschler’s lab breeding for acylsugar-mediated insect resistance in tomato. Wanting to gain experience with perennial applied genetics, I joined the lab of Dr. Shawn Mehlenbacher at Oregon State, where I discovered novel sources of genetic resistance to a hazelnut fungal pathogen, causal of Eastern Filbert Blight. After securing my degree, I worked as a staff research associate for Dr. Sarah Hake where I facilitated her work studying maize meristems and development by using forward genetics to characterize genes involved with leaf, inflorescence and floral development, including sex-determination. In Dr. Hake’s lab, I started supporting the research of Dr. Jacob Brunkard which focuses on the nutrient-sensing kinase TOR, working in both maize and Arabidopsis. Recently, I have begun working in the lab of Dr. Ksenia Krasileva, elucidating the genes responsible for enhanced disease (yellow rust) resistance in wheat and providing research support. My major research interests are reducing chemical inputs in agriculture and the gene regulatory network intersections of development, hormone regulation and biotic stress.

 

在我十几岁的时候，我萌生的第一个职业目标是培育无核石榴。在纽约州西部长大后，我考入康奈尔大学农业与生命科学学院，学习了高水平的植物遗传学课程并参加了适合大学生的植物育种计划，同时也进入Martha Mutschler博士实验室中工作，研究番茄中糖基介导的昆虫抗性。为了学习针对多年生植物的应用遗传学，我加入了俄勒冈州立大学Shawn Mehlenbacher博士实验室，在那里我探究了榛子东部枯萎病的致病机制，并发现了其真菌病原体遗传抗性的新来源。学位毕业后，我来到Sarah Hake博士实验室担任研究助理，协助推进该实验室在玉米分生组织发育领域的研究。我们主要通过正向遗传学手段来鉴定调控叶片、花序及性别决定等发育过程的关键基因。其间我也参与了Jacob Brunkard博士课题组的工作，协调了该课题组关于玉米和拟南芥中营养感受激酶TOR的相关研究。最近，我开始在Ksenia Krasileva博士的实验室中工作，从事挖掘小麦抗病（黄锈病）基因的研究。我的研究兴趣包括植物发育、激素调节和生物逆境响应等生命过程的互作调控。