“Using Genomics to Understand Species Distribution in Threatened Aconitum noveboracense” Project Summary: There are over 250 species of Aconitum (Ranunculaceae) around the globe, with six being native to North America. One North American species, A....
“Developing Griffithsia monilis as a model for the study and kinetic optimization of rubisco” Project Summary: Rubisco, a vital but inefficient carbon-fixing enzyme, is the limiting factor in green plant growth. The rubisco found in red algae Griffithsia...
“Investigating Dipeptide Inhibition of phosphorylating Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPC)” Project Summary: Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, specifically GAPC1 (EC 1.2.1.12), is a key enzyme in the metabolic pathway of glycolysis....
Project Summary: The CLP protease system is conserved in bacteria, mitochondria, and higher plant plastids, such as chloroplasts, and functions to maintain protein homeostasis by degrading a wide variety of substrates. Several CLP protease components have been...
“Probing Nuclei in Insect and Plant Cells” Project Summary: The nucleus is an integral cellular structure that protects and organizes the eukaryotic genome. While the role of the nucleus has been well characterized, less is known about factors that can...
“Investigating the functional role of long non-coding RNA in seed germination and seedling development” Project Summary: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are genes found in all eukaryotes that do not encode a protein and are emerging transcriptional...
Project Summary: The family of ACA genes encodes Ca2+ ATPases, pumps that transport calcium ions out of the cytosol. A total of fourteen genes in Arabidopsis encode these pumps that reside in the plasma membrane, endoplasmic reticulum, or vascular membrane. The ACA10...
“Investigating the role of isopentenyl-diphosphate isomerase in regulating vegetative growth and biomass in Arabidopsis thaliana” Project Summary: Plant architecture is greatly influenced by the number, size, and shape of the organs. Organ size is of great...
“Functional characterization of ORRM encoding genes in Arabidopsis thaliana” Project Summary: Organisms engage in a process called RNA editing, in where genetic information is modified post-transcriptionally on RNA intermediates (Hammani and Giege 2014)....
“Optimizing a deep-learning based program that quantifies arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization” Project summary: The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is one of the most ubiquitous and important plant-fungal symbiotic relationships. During this...
“Toward a Fine Characterization of Chloroplast Ribonuclease J in Arabidopsis” Project Summary: The chloroplast contains around 100 genes and has elements of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic gene expression. Transcription in chloroplasts has inefficient...
“Looking deeper into the Pto/Prf disease resistance signaling pathway in tomato” Project Summary: The bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) causes bacterial speck disease in tomato, leaving the plant either unable to survive or the...
“SpinachBasev2: An updated central portal for Spinach genomics tools and information” Project Summary: Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is an important agricultural crop because of its nutritional value, popularity, and other potential applications to human...
Project Summary: Robustness is a property of living things by which they can grow organs of the same size and shape despite environmental differences. Even though robustness is common to most living organisms, the mechanisms behind robust growth are not well...
“Investigating expression of Chlamydomonas bicarbonate transporters LCIA and LCI1 in plant chloroplasts” Project Summary: The ability of photosynthetic organisms to fix carbon dioxide into organic carbon is crucial to life on Earth. Unfortunately, in C3...
“Subcellular localization and role in pollen development of the jasmonic acid receptor (COI) protein family in Zea mays” Project Summary: The jasmonic acid (JA) signaling pathway regulates plant development and environmental responses. In the pathway, the...
“Investigating water relations in OST1-silenced Nicotiana benthamiana plants with AquaDust” Project Summary: Capturing the effects of drought on plant water relations in real-time is challenging. However, a nanotechnology approach involving a dyed hydrogel...
“Bees & Disease: Identifying Crithidia bombi in wild bees” Project Summary: Pollinators serve a critical role in our native ecosystems as well as agricultural crops, providing billions of dollars in pollination services annually. Recently, parasites...
“Exploring the Plant Mobileome – Investigating the Role of mRNAs as Signaling Molecules Across Graft Junctions” Project Summary: While I worked on a few projects during my internship, by far the most exciting was the research I did on mRNAs as...
“Functional Characterization of a Novel Aphid Effector in Nicotiana benthamiana Utilizing a Heritable Gene Editing System” Project Summary: Aphids are a common pest that can reproduce quickly and infest a plant, all while infiltrating the plant and...
“Analysis of Benzoxazinoid Content in Maize Leaf Waxes” Project Summary: This summer, I investigated the levels of benzoxazinoids (BX’s) in the cuticular waxes in maize. It is widely accepted that the main function of the epicuticular wax on the surface of...
“De novo genome assembly of wild tomato species, Solanum neorickii and identification of structural variants between S. neorickii and cultivated tomato, S. lycopersicum” Project Summary: Wild tomato species have been utilized in modern tomato breeding to...
“Analysis and Visualization Tools for BreeDBase” Project Summary: Over recent years, traditional phenotypic breeding has shifted to include digital tools such as genetic analysis. Often these tools can be inaccessible or difficult to use, however breed...
“Investigation of the role of DUF247 gene in the regulation of salt stress in Arabidopsis Thaliana” Project Summary: Salt stress alters plant architecture by impacting the growth and development of different organs, such as main and lateral root growth....
“Metabolite Extractions from Tomato Fruit for Nutrient Composition and Gene Expression Analyses” Project Summary: Tomatoes are the world’s most important crop plant. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, in 2019, 181 million tons of tomatoes...
“Evaluation of Insect Preference in Erysiumum cheiranthoides Mutant and Wildtype Plants” Project Summary Cardiac glycosides are a class of secondary metabolites involved in plant defense against herbivores. One class of cardiac glycosides, cardenolides,...
“Genetics of Domestication in the Solanaceae” Project Summary: The Nightshade family (Solanaceae) contains approximately 98 genera and 2,700 species and includes a number of important domesticated plants such as tomato, pepper, potato, tobacco, and...
“Prevalence of Crithidia bombi within manipulated and wild bee populations” Project Summary: Bees are one of many pollinators on Earth that contribute to most plant, fruit, and vegetable production. With patches of pollen sources around, some flowers tend...
“A diverse pollen diet increases Bombus impatiens microcolony development and performance” Project Summary: Bumble bees are polylectic and provide important pollination services to many crop plants. Managed bumble bee colony development and foraging is...
“Recombination Hotspots and their Impact on Maize Genome Structure” Project Summary: This study focuses on recombination; specifically, it aims to discover and understand crossover (CO) hotspots’ locations and prevalence along chromosomes in maize. It was...
“Characterization of ATML1 Transcription in Giant Cell Patterning in Arabidopsis thaliana using in vivo Imaging” Project Summary: The cereal crops represent a critical source of human nutrition. The primary purpose for growing grains is for their...
“Can we improve maize photosynthesis and resistance to chilling stress by over expressing a protein from Miscanthus?” Project Summary: As the demand for maize increases and the growing season is shifted earlier by the changing climate, the need to increase...
“Plant Defenses Downstream of MEDIATOR SUBUNIT 16 Regulates Plant Resistance to Turnip mosaic virus and its Aphid Vector Myzus persicae” Project Summary: Currently, Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) is one of the most destructive viruses to vegetable crops...
“The Role of IAA-Amidosynthetase in Mediating Plant Defense Responses via Involvement in Conjugation of Plant Hormones & Amino Acids” Project Summary: As a staple food crop and the largest economic agricultural driver in the United States, learning...
“omniTICC: cell-wide untargeted protein-metabolite interaction mapping using ion exchange chromatography” Project Summary: Metabolites are small molecular intermediates or end products of metabolism, playing key roles in cells as energy sources, building...
“Environmental Impacts on Cytosolic Phosphate Levels in B. distachyon Root Cells During Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) Symbiosis” Project Summary: Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi form symbiotic associations with the roots of a majority of vascular plants....
“Exploring the Characteristics of Plant Nuclei” Project Summary: While the structure of the nucleus is well-studied, we are interested in investigating the genomic characteristics that govern nuclear architecture and physical properties. This summer, we...
