Celebrating the October 2024 Focus Issue on Photosynthesis
October 17, 2024
1:00 PM UTC | 9:00 AM EST
It is difficult to overstate the importance of photosynthesis to life on Earth. Despite its importance, critical gaps remain in our understanding of photosynthesis, its interplay with other metabolic pathways, and the adaptation and acclimation processes that allow photosynthetic organisms to live almost everywhere on our planet. Filling these gaps will aid in improving the efficiency of photosynthesis in crop plants, accurately modeling the global carbon cycle, and enhancing terrestrial carbon sequestration to combat global climate change. The October 2023 Focus Issue of The Plant Cell, edited by Ralph Bock, Roberta Croce, Nancy Eckardt, J. Clark Lagarias, Sabeeha Merchant, and Kevin Redding, spotlights research on photosynthesis. This webinar features speakers Clara Groot Crego, Lin Zhang, and David Rolo who share findings from their work appearing in this Focus Issue. The webinar is hosted by Plant Cell Reviewing Editor Roberta Croce and moderated by Assistant Features Editor Guy Levin.
SPEAKERS
Clara Groot-Crego: CAM evolution is associated with gene family expansion in an explosive bromeliad radiation.
Clara recently completed her PhD in plant evolutionary genomics at the University of Vienna, Austria, and is now a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Ovidiu Paun (Vienna, AT) & Camille Roux (Lille, FR). Her work is focused on understanding the evolutionary forces that drive adaptive radiations. She will present her PhD thesis research, for which she used genomic data to disentangle the molecular sources of variation underlying adaptive radiation in tillandsioid bromeliads, a neotropical plant group from the Americas. In this work, Clara especially focused on the evolution of CAM photosynthesis as a key innovation trait and driver of diversification in the subgenus Tillandsia.
Lin Zhang: RESISTANCE TO PHYTOPHTHORA1 promotes cytochrome b559 formation during early photosystem II biogenesis in Arabidopsis.
Lin is an Associate Professor in the College of Life Sciences at Shanghai Normal University. She earned her PhD in 2017 from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research mainly focuses on the regulation of photosynthetic apparatus biogenesis. She recently identified two auxiliary proteins and clarified their regulatory mechanisms involved in the biogenesis of photosystem II.
David Rolo: CO-EXPRESSED WITH PSI ASSEMBLY1 (CEPA1) is a photosystem I assembly factor inArabidopsis.
David is a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Dr. Ralph Bock at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam, Germany, where he also got his PhD degree. He investigates how vascular plants build their photosynthetic apparatus in chloroplasts, with a particular focus on the identification and characterization of photosystem I assembly factors. His research largely relies on molecular biology, bioinformatic, and biochemical approaches.
MODERATOR
Guy Levin, The Plant Cell Assistant Features Editor
Guy recently completed his Ph.D. in the lab of Prof. Gadi Schuster at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. His main research interests are the molecular mechanisms of photoprotection in plants and algae under extreme light intensities. Guy has studied the photoprotective mechanisms of a unique desert-dwelling green algae, Chlorella ohadii, which is highly tolerant to extreme light intensities. In his Ph.D. work, Guy showed that C. ohadii thrives in light intensities that are fatal to many other green algae due to a unique protective mechanism, distinct from other algae and plants. In his coming post-doctoral research, Guy aims to use the knowledge he acquired during his PhD to improve photosynthesis in crops, aiming to increase their yield and tolerance.
HOST
Roberta Croce, The Plant Cell Reviewing Editor
Roberta Croce is a professor of Biophysics of Photosynthesis at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She studied chemistry at the University of Padova and completed her Ph.D. in Plant Biology/Biophysics at the University of Milano. Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of photosynthesis, especially the light reactions, which she studies at different levels of complexity, from single- molecules to the whole organism. Her research uses an integrated approach, including molecular biology, biochemistry, advanced spectroscopy, and theoretical methods.
