Recognizing Plant Physiology authors: Kimmo Kivivirta

Kimmo Kivivirta, first author of Transcriptome analysis of gynoecium morphogenesis uncovers the chronology of gene regulatory network activity

Current Position: Ph.D. candidate in the research group of Prof. Dr. Annette Becker, Evolutionary Developmental Biology of Plants, Faculty of Biology and Chemistry, Justus-Liebig University Gießen, Germany

Education: M.Sc. in plant biology and agriculture at University of Helsinki, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry

Non-scientific interests: music, podcasts, weightlifting

Brief Bio:  After completing my M.Sc. in Helsinki, I moved to Prof. Dr. Annette Becker’s laboratory of Evolutionary Developmental Biology of Plants in Justus-Liebig University, Gießen, Germany. The research topic and the work I’ve done for the past four years have been a fascinating and diverse mixture of hands-on time with several different plants, wet-lab experiments and bioinformatics. We aimed to get a fuller understanding of the spatiotemporal mechanisms of flower development with the power and potential of modern transcriptomics. We have translated the numerical data of transcriptional values for tens of thousands of genes into biological functions during the stages of gynoecium morphogenesis.

Flowers and angiosperms have such an immense impact on our everyday lives even though we might not often think about it. The challenges and the gratification of finding something completely new from something so seemingly simple keep me inspired and fascinated in this topic.