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Former Postdoc Cesar has started as a faculty member at Mexico’s top university! His lab will be focused on understanding the function of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins in plants. Congrats Professor! You can read more about his research program here.

Today I gave a presentation on how to design an effective chalk talk.  I also put together a guide that gives useful pointers for the whole process of applying for academic jobs.  Hope you find the reference useful.

How to Give a Chalk Talk Guide, Version 1

 

José was selected as a scientist to watch by Science News.  The recognition is very much appreciated, particularly for the great work that the lab has done to understand plant environment interactions and in innovating new experimental approaches.  Thanks!

Julius von Sachs is the father of modern plant physiology.  Blog by Ian Street highlights importance of Sachs and describes the intellectual connectivity between the work of our lab with this scientific tradition.  Sachs use of rhizotrons and the advances made through GLO-Roots are fueled by our understanding that plant biology makes sense only in an environmental context.

Open Access paper available here.

Roots are mysterious organ systems that inhabit a world hidden by a veil of soil. Methods that lift this veil often sacrifice physiological relevance in exchange for visualization capability and experimental control. Such compromises may be incompatible with our desire to understand the adaptive mechanisms plants use to thrive despite environmental changes. We have devised a new method named GLO-Roots for Growth and Luminescence Observatory for Roots. GLO-Roots comprises an integrated solution for the growth, visualization and quantification of root systems in a diverse set of plant species including the eudicots Arabidopsis and tomato as well as grasses Brachypodium distachyon and Setaria viridis (unpublished). Our method enables the visualization of plant roots in thin sheets of soil using luminescence-based reporters. We codon-optimized a wide array of luciferase reporter genes and tested which isoforms worked best to reveal the root and, in dual color reporter assays, enabled structure and gene expression to be visualized simultaneously. Using the GLO-Roots system, we were able to simulate drought conditions and showed that Arabidopsis roots exhibit enhanced gravity responses that direct growth downwards towards deep-water resources. We also show that GLO-Roots is ideal for studying root-microbe interactions through the use of bacterial luminescence reporter systems. Working with Guillame Lobet at the University of Liege, we designed GLO-RIA, an image analysis package that automatically quantifies root systems imaged using GLO-Roots. Importantly, this software is able to relate root architectural features with gene expression and soil moisture to generate a true multi-dimensional understanding of root biology. This work is of particular significance as it provides a comprehensive method to study root growth and environmental response at late stages of the lifecycle and with physiological relevance unparalleled by other published systems. The GLO-Roots method is also the subject of a patent application filed in 2013.