Join Quantitative Plant Biology for a journal club series digging into the latest impactful research submitted to the journal with the authors.
Covering plant science subjects across all biological scales and from a wide range of sources, this journal club aims to open the debate for important questions, amongst which: ‘How does quantitative biology help to uncover hidden plant features?’
Take part in these short and essential webinars to enrich your research and take this opportunity to chat with experts in the field of quantitative plant science. Each webinar will include a short presentation from the author, followed by a discussion session with the audience.
Quantitative Plant Biology is an open access journal co-published by Cambridge University Press and The John Innes Centre, publishing ground-breaking discoveries and predictions in quantitative plant science.
Registration is open, please note that if you have already registered you need not register again.
2021
Speaker: Alexander Jones and Jim Rowe
Date/Time: Tuesday 16th November 12pm BST | 2pm CEST| 8am EDT | 9pm JST
Title: Focus on biosensors: Looking through the lens of quantitative biology
Alexander Jones: My research group at the Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge University investigates how plant hormones serve as signal integrators and master regulators of physiology and development. In multicellular organisms, these functions are crucial for the coordination of the activities of individual cells – each having an independently tuneable hormone level and hormone response – into an ensemble behaviour appropriate for the organism as a whole. Our recent advent of fluorescent biosensors for several plant hormones permits analysis of their levels with cellular resolution and we are now observing hormone patterns that were previously unknown. We also continue to develop new technologies for high-resolution sensing and perturbation of plant hormones in vivo.
Jim Rowe is a Post-doc in Alexander Jones’ Group at SLCU, Cambridge. After a systems biology PhD on hormonal root responses to osmotic stress and a postdoc working on stomatal development, Jim started working for the Jones Group in 2017. His project focuses on developing the next generation of high affinity, high ratio-change ABA biosensors- ABACUS2, and using them to map stress responses in plants. As well as stress responses and sensor development, Jim is interested in developing image analysis toolsets to make highly-quantitative science more widely achievable.
Click here to read their co-authored paper published in Quantitative Plant Biology.
Past Webinars
Speaker: Minako Ueda
Date/Time: Wednesday 14th April 2021, 10am BST/6pm JST
Title: Mitochondrial dynamics and segregation during the asymmetric division of Arabidopsis zygotes
Abstract: Minako is Professor in Graduate School of Life Sciences of Tohoku University in Japan. The focus of her group is directed towards the molecular mechanism of plant ontology. She has extensive experience working on live-cell imaging of embryo development, as well as molecular genetics focusing on transcriptional network regulating pattern formation. She has published manuscripts on living dynamics of intracellular structures in the zygote, and development of novel molecules to visualize or regulate specific aspects of plant cell behaviors, such as cell cycle progression and proliferation.
Click here to view Minako Udea's paper published in Quantitative Plant Biology.
Watch the recording of Minako's session here.
Speaker: Satoru Tsugawa
Date/Time: Monday 26th April 2021, 8am BST/4pm JST
Title: A mathematical model explores the contributions of bending and stretching forces to shoot gravitropism in Arabidopsis
Abstract: Satoru is Assistant Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering of Akita Prefectural University in Japan. The research focus is data quantification and mathematical modeling of plant morphology. He has been working on an interdisciplinary study including image data analysis, machine learning, mathematical modeling and mechanical simulations by finite element method. He has published manuscripts on data-model combined approach to understand experimental data and its mechanical interpretations especially for the mechanism of sepal shape development and the dynamics of shoot gravitropism.
Click here to read Satoru Tsugawa's paper published in Quantitative Plant Biology.
Watch the recording of Satoru's session here.
Speaker: Gerrit Beemster
Date/Time: Tuesday 11th May 2021, 4pm BST/11am EDT/6pm JST
Title: leafkin—An R package for automated kinematic data analysis of monocot leaves
Abstract: Gerrit is part of the Integrated Molecular Plant Physiology Research (IMPRES) at the University of Antwerp. His group investigates the effect of environmental conditions (mainly drought, temperature, CO2) and genetic differences on the growth of plants from the whole plant down to the cellular and molecular level using classic growth analysis, kinematic approaches and genome-wide mRNA profiling. They collaborate with several other groups on transcript profiling of changes in a wide range of organisms, including animals, microorganisms and plants. In addition they also perform mutant studies, mapping of mutations in mapping populations and methylome analysis in Arabidopsis and maize.
Click here to read Gerrit Beemster's paper published in Quantitative Plant Biology.
Watch the recording of Gerrit's session here.
Speaker: Boon Leong LIM
Date/Time: Thursday 20th May 2021, 9am NYT | 2pm BST | 9pm HKT | 10pm JST
Title: A trio of two organelles
Abstract: Boon L Lim is an Associate Professor of the University of Hong Kong. His 2018 PNAS article illustrated that the exportation of reducing equivalents, rather than the importation of ATP, is the key to maintain optimal ATP/NADPH ratio for photosynthesis. Then, his 2020 NCpaper showed that surplus reducing equivalents generated by photorespiration is exported from mitochondria to the cytosol. Now, in his recent QPB article, he provided a real example on how cooperative management of reducing equivalents by chloroplasts and mitochondria can promote plant growth and productivity.
Click here to read Boon Leong LIM's paper published in Quantitative Plant Biology.
Speaker: Yosapol Harnvanichvech
Date/Time: Wednesday 26th May 2021, 10am BST/6pm JST
Title: The Arabidopsis embryo as a quantifiable model for studying pattern formation
Abstract: Yosapol is a joint PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Dolf Weijers from the Laboratory of Biochemistry and Prof. Joris Sprakel from the Physical Chemistry and Soft Matter Group at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. His research focuses on cell type specification in plants using the Arabidopsis embryo as a model. He is currently optimising the generation of transcriptomes from single embryonic cells, and is also interested in the influences of mechanical stimuli on embryonic gene expression. He has published reviews on the Arabidopsis embryo as a quantifiable model for studying pattern formation.
Click here to read Yosapol Harnvanichvech's paper published in Quantitative Plant Biology.
Speaker: Professor Richard J Morris
Date/Time: Tuesday 29th June 2021, 11am BST | 7pm JST
Title: Comparative transcriptomics reveals desynchronisation of gene expression during the floral transition between Arabidopsis and Brassica rapa cultivars
Abstract: Dr Richard Morris is a group leader in Computational & Systems Biology at JIC and Professor in Applied Mathematics. He is interested in a variety of biological problems, in particular those that can be reduced to physical principles and quantitative analyses. His primary research focus is on how plants communicate over intra- and intercellular distances, i.e. understanding how environmental stimuli are encoded as signals and how these signals are transmitted and decoded.
Click here to read Dr Richard J Morris's paper published in Quantitative Plant Biology.
Speaker: Marco Saltini
Date/Time: Wednesday 7th July 1pm BST | 2pm CEST| 8am EDT | 9pm JST
Title: A plausible mechanism for longitudinal lock-in of the plant cortical microtubule array after light-induced reorientation
Marco is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Ecology and Genetics of Uppsala University and in the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. He is interested in applying theoretical physics concepts and methods to the study of biological mechanisms. Currently, he develops mathematical models to describe eco-evolutionary processes, in particular to investigate what ecological factors contribute to the generation and maintenance of phenotypic diversity. During his PhD studies at AMOLF (Amsterdam) under the supervision of Professor Bela Mulder, he designed stochastic models aimed at understanding the self-organization of the plant microtubule cytoskeleton.
Click here to read Marco's paper published in Quantitative Plant Biology.