Sanhita Chakraborty: Plant Physiology First Author

Sanhita Chakraborty, co-first author of “An LCO-responsive homolog of NODULE INCEPTION positively regulates lateral root formation in Populus sp“

Current Position: Research associate, Ané lab, Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Education: Ph.D. (Plant Biology), University of Vermont, USA

Non-scientific Interests: Music, reading, walk in the nature

Brief bio: I am fascinated by how plants develop amidst a dynamic environment. During my Ph.D. in the lab of Dr. Jeanne Harris at the University of Vermont, I studied the development of nitrogen-fixing rhizobium-legume symbiosis and how it is influenced by salinity. My postdoctoral work in the lab of Dr. Jean-Michel Ané at the University of Wisconsin-Madison revolves around deciphering the mechanism of the development and evolution of nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbiosis within the so-called nitrogen-fixing clade, which includes the legumes and several other plant groups. The transcription factor Nodule Inception (NIN) is critical for nodule formation within the nitrogen-fixing clade and its loss strongly correlates with the loss of nodulation within this clade. Populus sp., a close outgroup to the clade, does not form nodules yet retains homologs of NIN. In the current study, we show that a NIN homolog in poplar is involved in lateral root formation in this species.