Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Jaya Joshi

Jaya Joshi, first author of Rethinking  PDH Bypass and GABA Shunt as Thiamin-Deficiency Workarounds

Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow

Education: PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology, MSc in Plant Biochemistry and BSc in Agricultural Sciences

Non-scientific Interests: painting, reading and tennis

Brief bio: After my MSc in Plant Biochemistry from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore in my native India, I first worked in industry as a datamining scientist for Monsanto and then for the Global Marker Technologies team at Pioneer-Dupont. To pursue a growing interest in plant metabolism, I moved to Canada to obtain my PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Western Ontario, working on sulfur amino acid metabolism in developing bean seeds. My research showed how S-methyl cysteine is synthesized. Since 2017, I have been a synthetic biology postdoc in Andrew Hanson’s group at University of Florida where I work on metabolic parts-prospecting and directed evolution of enzymes. Our current publication shows that the pyruvate dehydrogenase bypass and the GABA shunt can act as workarounds for thiamin deficiency. Although these pathways are well known they have never been seen in this way before.