Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Priya Voothuluru

Priya Voothuluru, first author of An in vivo imaging assay detects spatial variability in glucose release from plant roots

Current Position: Research Associate, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee

Education: Ph.D. University of Missouri 2012

Non-scientific interests: Keeping up with current affairs, watching cricket and tennis, being outdoors, baking

Brief Bio-sketch: My interest in plant biology developed during my undergraduate years, when I realized the tremendous impact agricultural research had on increasing food production in India and the world over. Ever since, I have been working on various projects with the over-arching theme of understanding how plants modify their growth and development in response to biotic and abiotic stressors. While developing an in-vivo glucose localization assay to study carbon partitioning in plants, I made a serendipitous discovery that there is spatial variability in glucose release from plant roots. This observation has interesting implications for plant interactions with microbial populations, mychorrizal fungi and other symbiotic and/or pathogenic microbes in the rhizosphere. I am excited at the prospect of integrating the in-vivo glucose imaging technology with genetics and functional genomic technology to advance the understanding of carbon partitioning in plant development under favorable and unfavorable conditions.