Alan Walton: Novel tools to monitor plant hormones
In just 3.5 years at VIB, British PhD student Alan Walton of the Kris Gevaert Lab and the Sofie Goormachtig Lab (VIB-UGent) has contributed to 10 papers. This year, he developed proteomic tools useful in gaining insights into the signaling processes in strigolactones, plant hormones that act as recognition signals for parasitic weed germination. In this way, Alan hopes to contribute to a solution for large-scale crop losses worldwide. His paper was published in the January issue of Plant Cell.
Cezary Waszczak: plant co2 release in atmosphere regulation mechanism
Since joining our student program in 2008, Cezary Waszczak of the Frank Van Breusegem Lab (VIB-UGent) and the Joris Messens Lab (VIB-KU Leuven) from Poland has, in the meantime, earned his PhD. His latest scientific achievement involved identifying a regulation mechanism by which plants release CO2 back into the atmosphere. Since photosynthetic CO2 assimilation is vital to sustain life on earth, this study published in Plant Cell can provide a perspective for engineering this pathway to improve crop yields.
Brigida Gallone: Comparing wine and beer Yeasts
Brigida Gallone of the Kevin Verstrepen Lab (VIB-KU Leuven) and the Steven Maere Lab (VIBUGent) from Italy recently made waves in both the scientific community and the public at large with a study published in Cell, indicating that ancient brewers and winemakers were already using yeasts long before the discovery of microorganisms. One of the paper’s striking conclusions: beer yeasts were ‘tamed’ and adapted according to their relationships with humans, whereas wine yeasts could freely interbreed with feral yeasts in the winery. Or, to extend the metaphor: beer yeasts are like dogs, wine yeasts are like cats.
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