Comparison of Soilless Potting Mixes In the Plant Growth Facility at BTI, different potting mixes are used to grow plants for experimentation and analysis. Components of these bagged potting medias used at BTI are non-renewable and have become increasingly difficult...
Localizing Catechol-Glucoside Synthesis Genes May Provide New Insight Into The Functions of Maize Benzoxazinoids Benzoxazinoids are a type of grass species metabolite that are essential to herbivory and pathogen defense. Prior research has indicated their potential to...
Voruscharin in cardiac glycosides Cardiac glycosides (CGs) are a class of organic compounds that are used as medicines to slow the heart rate and strengthen the muscle. These organic compounds can be found in milkweed plants and make the plant very toxic to most...
Carotenoid analysis of gene-edited rin mutant tomatoes Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) serves as a model system to study ripening in fleshy fruit due to its fast rate of growth (3-4 months) and ease of genetic transformation. The rin (ripening inhibitor) mutation is...
Exploring the macrolous rin mutation The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) has served as the model system to understand ripening processes because it is characterized well genetically, grows quickly (typically 3-4 months), and is of great economic importance. The RIN gene...
Elucidating the role of dipeptides in plants Dipeptides are small molecules that consist of two amino acids joined by a peptide bond. In animals, dipeptides are known to affect various physiological responses including digestive, immune, and nervous systems. In...
Standardizing Setaria viridis phenotyping protocols—Application to Rubisco overexpression lines Earth’s population has grown tremendously over the last seven decades, from 2.6 to 7.6 billion1,2, and finding ways to provide food without increasing land use is...
The Function of the RPS6 Gene in Plant Growth Under Normal and Cold Temperatures RPS6 is a vital gene found in the ribosomes of all plant species, directly influencing cell proliferation during early growth stages. This study aims to investigate the impact of RPS6...
Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes in F1 from the Cross between S. lycoperiscum M82 and S. pennellii LA0716 The modern cultivated tomato is characterized by a lack of genetic diversity due to extensive selective breeding. In contrast, wild tomatoes...
Investigating the Effects of Dark Septate Endophytes on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are soil microorganisms that form symbiotic relationships with plants through root colonization. AMF inhabit more than 80% of terrestrial plant...
High Throughput Phenotyping of Arabidopsis Mutants Under Stress Deepening the understanding of how stress affects plants is important due to climate change. Understanding how plants deal with stress and improving their resilience could allow for breeding plant...
Auditing Database Tables in Breedbase In an era when genetic sequencing and phenotyping are quickly producing vast amounts of data, database systems such as Breedbase are becoming increasingly necessary in genomics research. Websites that use the Breedbase ecosystem...
Foraging Distance of Honey Bees with Deformed Wing Virus Deformed wing virus (DWV) is a common RNA virus exacerbated in honey bees (Apis mellifera) by Varroa mites. DWV is at epidemic levels in honey bees and poses a major concern for beekeepers. Additionally, DWV can...
It’s Getting Hot in Here: The Convergence of PIF4 and Temperature in Regulating Immunity and Disease Chlorosis in Arabidopsis thaliana With the advent of increasing global temperatures due to climate change comes greater susceptibility of our staple crops to...
The Effects of Species and Diet on Metabolites Present in Aphid Saliva Despite their minute physical size, aphids are an important, complex family of insects (Aphididae: Hemiptera) that includes many agronomically important pests. Most aphids feed on the phloem of...
“Biological Ballistics”: Optimizing Biolistic Transformation in Hornwort Model Species Anthoceros agrestis Upon transitioning from an aquatic to a terrestrial environment approximately 500 million years ago, land plants diverged into two major groups, vascular plants...
The role of PP2C protein phosphatases in pattern- and effector- triggered immunity in tomato Protein phosphorylation mediated by protein kinases is important in plant immune signaling transduction and has been extensively investigated. The reverse action of protein...
Examining Patterns of Dioicy Across Hornwort Phylogeny Using U/V Sex Chromosomes Sexual reproduction is in every clade within eukaryotes and is essential to life on earth. However, little is known about how it evolved, the development of separate sexes, and what genes...
Structural-Functional Study of a Rice Potassium Transporter High salinity negatively affects crop productivity and yield, making plant adaptations to salinity of high agronomic interest. High-affinity potassium transporters (HKTs) are a class of plasma membrane...
Preference and Performance of the Seedcorn Maggot Under Different Environmental Conditions Delia platura, also known as the seedcorn maggot (SCM), is an agricultural pest fly that damages the seeds of a wide range of crop species, preventing the plants from emerging....
Investigating a Component of Stress Response in Arabidopsis thaliana My time here at Cornell has been extremely rewarding in many ways. Not only did my mentor, Ju-Chen, teach me about RNA extraction, RT-qPCR, plant growth/care, hydroponics, cDNA synthesis, and many...
Exploring the roles of carotenoids in governing reproductive fitness in tomato Carotenoids are a collection of indispensable pigments that exist in many forms of life and are essential for human health. In plants, they are photoprotectants, act as precursors for...
Effects of Abscisic Acid, Brassinosteroids, and Jasmonic Acid on Sepal Initiation Consistency and reproducibility of organ size and shape against the strain of environmental factors provides an organism robustness, which is critical to proper organogenesis. Robustness...
Examining Lipid Nanoparticles as an effective method for pDNA delivery into tomato plants The need for viable means of plant gene delivery is more crucial at this moment in time than it possibly ever has been. Plant genetic engineering in its current form uses the...
Effects of Fungicide Residues on the Growth and Feeding of Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) Larvae The use of pesticides continues to be a prominent approach for improving crop productivity in the agricultural sector. While these chemicals offer significant...
A robust synthetic RNA editing system via cytidine deamination in E. coli In a recent study1, researchers developed synthetic PPR proteins that could specify C-to-U editing of particular sequences in E. coli without any of the accessory proteins that are normally...
Does Landscape Context Alter Selection on Plant Defensive Strategies? Plants have evolved a variety of physical and chemical defenses to protect themselves from insect herbivory. Due to limited resources, plants face a trade-off between what defense strategy to invest...
Grafting plants and knowledge: Affixing rootstock to scion and joining local expertise with scientific knowledge to enhance plant performance and public engagement in science Utilizing the non-traditional research approach of community-based participatory research...
Characterizing Effects of Ala-Ile Dipeptide on Arabidopsis Germination and Growth Plant regulation of carbon metabolism is a central focus of plant biology as a whole, as it has far-reaching implications regarding how plants react to environmental stimuli; this in...
Identification of voruscharin biosynthetic genes through differential gene expression analysis of Asclepias species Cardiac glycosides are secondary metabolites produced in plants as toxic defenses against herbivorous insects. They have evolved independently at least...
Investigating Endogenous Metabolite Contributions to Drought Resilience As climate change continues to drive increased drought frequency and intensity, the global agricultural sector faces challenges in sustaining food production and ensuring food security. Here, we...
Investigating candidate enzymes for resin glycoside biosynthesis in the morning glory family Resin glycosides (RGs) are a special class of acylsugars found across the Convolvulaceae (morning glory) family that have been found to play important roles in plants’...
Adaptation of a tissue culture-independent transformation method and genomic editing tools for Coffea arabica Coffea arabica represents about 60% of global coffee production. This cultivar is highly sensitive to climate change and pathogens such as coffee leaf rust...
Predicting Rate of Recombination Events in the Maize Genome In a world with a constantly changing climate, crops must be able to adapt to their environments and produce enough yield to sustain an ever-growing population. Plant breeders recognize this problem, but the...
Soybean Domestication: Determining Differentially Expressed Genes in Root Tissues Between Wild and Cultivated Species Soybeans are a significant cash crop that are very actively studied in the agricultural industry. Glycine max has gained many desirable agronomic...
Functional Characterization of Novel lncRNA in Arabidopsis thaliana Excluded from the Central Dogma, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) are RNA of 200 nucleotides or more that lack the capacity to translate into protein. Following the discovery of lncRNA making up 99...
Investigation of the negative correlation between carotenoid andstarch levels in the leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana Carotenoids serve as provitamin A compounds and dietary antioxidants in humans and are important photosynthesis pigments, photoprotective agents,...
Investigating a pair of plasma membrane kinases and their impact on arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) symbiosis is a mutualistic relationship between plants and fungi supported by over 80% of land plants, including many crop species, making...
Optimizing an E. coli expression system for Penium margaritaceum Rubisco In photosynthesis, the enzyme Rubisco catalyzes the fixation of carbon dioxide (CO2) into carbohydrates. To reduce Rubisco’s ability to react with oxygen, some photosynthetic organisms have...
Monitoring Mobility: An Integrative Approach into Studying Mobile Elements in Plants Plants like animals have a vascular system, and plants transport mRNA and peptides very long distances through theirs to communicate. In an ever-shifting environmental landscape from...
Investigating the Effects of Benzoxazinoids on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Colonization in Maize Crops The rhizosphere microbiome is an important driver of agricultural yields as it promotes mutualistic relationships between plants and the microorganisms that...
Bryophyte Rubisco Expression and Assembly in E. coli Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase (Rubisco) catalyzes the fixation of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle of photosynthesis, which is the primary manner for carbon acquisition into...
Increasing Efficiency: creating an Automated Tissue Processor for Plant Sciences My summer research project aimed to tackle the time-consuming and labor-intensive propidium iodide (PI) staining process in plant sciences, which is routinely used for staining cell...
Identification of structural variants affecting fruit quality traits between wild and cultivated watermelons Watermelon, Citrullus lanatus, is among the top five most consumed fruits globally. Its domestication has led to significant changes of fruit quality traits,...
Investigating Conserved Transcriptional Responses to Salinity Stress in Arabidopsis and its Relatives Salt stress is a prevalent obstacle in agriculture that can cause adverse effects in crops such as physiological drought and metabolic disruption The plant family...
Revealing the Occurrence and Diversity of Polyphosphate Accumulating Organisms (PAOs) Communities Across Maize Genotypes and Growth Stages Phosphate (P) is an essential mineral nutrient for plants and key in modern fertilizer. Fertilizer use is necessary to maintain...
Investigating the Impact of 1-Methylcyclopropene and Gene Editing on Physalis grisea Abscission Fruit abscission is a necessary process for many plants, and describes the shedding of fruit from the stem. This process spreads seeds, which is important for advancing the...
High-throughput phenotyping of Galápagos Island tomatoes with computer vision Cultivated tomato plants and their wild relatives exhibit considerable phenotypic diversity and are therefore a useful model system in fruit biology. To measure quantitative trait variation...
Mechanisms of underlying interactions between herbivores This research project aimed to explore the preference of squash bugs (Anasa tristis) for cucumber beetle (Acalymma vittatum)-damaged plants and investigate the underlying facilitation mechanisms. The study...
