2017 First Authors

The Plant Cell and the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) value the important contribution that early career investigators make to plant biology research. The Plant Cell publishes author profiles for first authors of articles that are highlighted in the In Brief section of the journal. The author profiles are published along with the research article online and are featured on the ASPB digital platform Plantae (https://plantae.org/). This booklet presents all of the author profiles published in 2017.

aspb.org

ContentsTariq A. Akhtar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Santiago Alejandro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2Diana Bellin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3Govinal Badiger Bhaskara . . . . . . . . . . . .4Susanna Boxall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Rémy Cailliatte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6Lingling Cheng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7Mawsheng Chern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8Young B. Cho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9Rakesh David . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10Alisandra Denton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11Hong-Chao Duan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12Akihito Fukudome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13Kyung-Eun Gil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14Nerina Gnesutta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15Oliver Godfroy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16Vera Gorelova . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17Andre Greiner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18Elizabeth Henry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19Richard Hickman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20Quancan Hou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21Qing Hu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22Masanori Izumi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23Rashmi Jain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24Tianran Jia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25Kristoffer Jonsson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26Simon Kelterborn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27Karen Kloth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28Jae-Hyung Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29Guotian Li . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30Huchen Li . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31Yafei Li . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32Tengfang Ling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33Xiaoqin Liu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34Xinye Liu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35Qiang Luo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

James K. McCarthy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37Patrice Morel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38Jose M. Muiño . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39Qiong Nan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40Ido Nir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41Iwai Ohbayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42Eunsook Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43Hua Qi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45Dong Qian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46Marlies Riedlmeier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47Sarah Robinson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48Liang Rong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49Michael Sandmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50Maximilian Schmidt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51Stefan Schmollinger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52Rene Schneider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53Jun Sung Seo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54Sara Simonini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55Cezary Smaczniak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56Josh Strable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57Yanhua Su . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58Lior Tal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59Tracey Tenreira . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60Franziska Trusch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61Marcel C. Van Verk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62Alexander Vogel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63Jamie Waese. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64Sheliang Wang. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65Stephan Wawra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66Jennifer Wisecaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67Tyler Wittkoppy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68Zhuo Yang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69Zhiyang Zhai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70Liyuan Zhang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71Yan Zhu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72

1

Tariq A. Akhtar

Highlighted Paper Polyprenols Are Synthesized by a Plastidial cis-Prenyltransferase and Influence Photosyn-thetic PerformanceTariq A. Akhtar, Przemysław Surowiecki, Hanna Siekierska, Magdalena Kania, Kristen Van Gelder, Kevin A. Rea, Lilia K.A. Virta, Maritza Vatta, Katarzyna Gawarecka, Jacek Wojcik, Witold Danikiewicz, Daniel Buszewicz, Ewa Swiezewska, Liliana Surmacz

Current Position: Assistant Professor, Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at the University of Guelph

Education: BSc, MSc, University of Waterloo; PhD, University of Florida; Post-doctoral associate, University of Michigan

Non-scientific Interests: Political history, gastronomy, oenology, and fatherhood

Plant metabolism and the splendid array of compounds that they produce have been an interest of mine since childhood. I am specifically interested in how plants make such compounds—those that have medicinal importance and ecological or indus-trial relevance. The enzymes that plants have evolved to synthesize such compounds and the regulatory mechanisms that they utilize to deploy them are of central im-portance to this process and therefore serve as the basis of my research program. In the aforementioned study, we were curious as to how and why all plants accumulate a class of hydrophobic polymers, known as polyprenols. Drawing on our collective experience and expertise in molecular and cellular biochemistry, together with ana-lytical approaches, we uncovered a functional role for these plant compounds, which will hopefully provide future researchers with an opportunity to consider polypre-nols more than just plant ‘secondary metabolites.’

2

Santiago Alejandro

Highlighted Paper Intracellular Distribution of Manganese by the Trans-Golgi Network Transporter NRAMP2 Is Critical for Photosynthesis and Cellular Redox HomeostasisSantiago Alejandro, Rémy Cailliatte, Carine Alcon, Léon Dirick, Frédéric Domergue, David Correia, Loren Castaings, Jean-François Briat, Stéphane Mari, Catherine Curie

Current Position: Research Scientist, Plant Nutrition Laboratory, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

Education: PhD in Biotechnology, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain

Non-scientific Interests: Reading and computer programming

The aim of my PhD thesis was the identification of novel regulators of salinity, potas-sium transport, and cation toxicity. Then my research interests were focused on plant transporters and abiotic stresses. After my PhD defense, I moved to the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Zurich, under the supervision of Enrico Martinoia working on the importance of ABC transporters in drought and lignin biosynthesis. My interest in plant transporters led me to work with Catherine Curie (Iron Signal-ing Group, BPMP-Montpellier). My main goal in her group was to decipher critical steps in the regulation and mediation of manganese (Mn) transport into the model plant Arabidopsis. In particular, I proposed some approaches aimed at understand-ing the roles played by the plant cellular compartments in Mn homeostasis. In this context, we found that the Mn transporter AtNRAMP2 is required for Mn distri-bution to different organelles. I then joined the Stress Signaling Group of Dr. Jean Colcombet in Saclay-Paris, to participate in a collaborative project to analyze the Arabidopsis phosphoproteome upon early time pathogen infection. This innovative project was designed to obtain the time course fluctuations of PTMs after abiotic stresses. Right now, I am continuing my research on plant transporters in Edgar Peiter’s lab focusing on manganese homeostasis in sugar beet.

3

Diana Bellin

Highlighted Paper Host-Mediated S-Nitrosylation Disarms the Bac-terial Effector HopAI1 to Re-Establish ImmunityTengfang Ling, Diana Bellin, Elodie Vandelle, Zahra Imanifard, Massimo Delledonne

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Plant Systems Engineering Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology, Daejeon, South Korea.

Education: BS, Biological Sciences, Nanjing Agricul-tural University, China; PhD, Biotechnology, University of Verona, Italy

Non-scientific Interests: Photography and sports

I started my scientific career in Prof. Shen’s lab, Nanjing Agricultural University, as a master’s student studying NO function in plant abiotic stress, where we found that NO can rescue the wheat root under salty stress by delaying programmed cell death of root. In my subsequent PhD study in Prof. Delledonne’s lab, I have been working on NO and investigating its role in plant–pathogen interactions, in particular the Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato(Pst)–Arabidopsis interaction during plant disease resistance. We found that during the hypersensitive response the plant host employs NO-mediated S-nitrosylation to disarm the type III effector HopAI1, which targets and suppresses MAPK signaling, and restores plant immunity. Later, I moved to Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology and continued working on the role of plasma membrane phospholipids during systemic acquired resistance in Arabidopsis.

4

Govinal Badiger Bhaskara

Highlighted Paper Protein Phosphatase 2Cs and Microtubule- Associated Stress Protein 1 Control Microtubule Stability, Plant Growth, and Drought ResponseGovinal Badiger Bhaskara, Tuan-Nan Wen, Thao Thi Nguyen, Paul E. Verslues

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Education: PhD: Molecular and Biological Agri-cultural Sciences, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica and National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan

Non-scientific Interests: Trekking, road-trips, watching movies, playing badminton and cricket

My interest in plant biology came quite naturally to me because in my country native, India, environmental stresses occur in an unpredictable manner but the agricultural activity is intensive and dependent population is large. After M.S. study and several years of teaching experience in biology, I joined the Taiwan International Graduate Program in Academia Sinica. At Academia Sinica I could take advantage of outstand-ing facilities and resources for plant biology research. After lab rotations, I joined the laboratory of Paul Verslues, who was at that time a newly recruited faculty member of Academia Sinica. The Verslues laboratory focuses on drought-related sensing and signaling mechanisms. During my PhD, I analyzed stress function of Type 2C Protein Phosphatases (PP2Cs) (Bhaskara et al., 2012, Plant Physiology). During this time, we also began to look for other PP2Cs that affect drought resistance. We obtained some interesting initial results for three Clade E PP2Cs and after completing my PhD work I focused on these new PP2Cs for my postdoctoral research. During these studies in the Verslues laboratory I developed an enormous interest in plant stress biology. I am now excited to further pursue plant stress research as a postdoctoral research associate in the laboratory of Thomas Juenger at the University of Texas in Austin. In the Juenger lab, I will investigate the mechanisms of drought resistance in switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), a major biofuel crop. My future goal is to apply my expertise to the devel-opment of improved crop varieties in India.

5

Susanna Boxall

Highlighted Paper Phosphorylation of Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxylase Is Essential for Maximal and Sustained Dark CO2 Fixation and Core Circadian Clock Operation in the Obligate Crassulacean Acid Metabolism Species Kalanchoë fedtschenkoiSusanna F. Boxall, Louisa V. Dever, Jana Kneřová, Peter D. Gould, James Hartwell

Current Position: Post-doctoral Research Associate in Functional and Comparative Genomics, University of Liverpool, UK

Education: BSc in Applied Plant Sciences, University of Manchester, UK; PhD in Plant Molecular Biology at Univerity of Glasgow, UK

Non-scientific Interests: Hiking, gardening, swimming, walking our border collie, bringing up our three children and having good times with family

My PhD was with Prof. Ian Graham at the University of Glasgow, and involved the characterisation of Arabidopsis sugar sensing mutants. Since then I have been a post-doc working on the molecular genetics and functional genomics underlying the daily regulation of Crassulacean acid metabolism by the circadian clock. I have always been interested in plant and crop responses to drought, and salt tolerant plants, and so find it very rewarding that I am now part of a project aiming to put the drought tolerant attributes of CAM plants into crops. With arid and semi-arid regions pre-dicted to expand in the face of climate change, it will be a race against time to devel-op more climate resilient and drought tolerant crops that can keep humanity moving forwards. A key thing I love about my work is that I feel I have the chance to make a valuable contribution to these urgently needed crop improvements.

6

Rémy Cailliatte

Highlighted Paper Intracellular Distribution of Manganese by the Trans-Golgi Network Transporter NRAMP2 Is Critical for Photosynthesis and Cellular Redox HomeostasisSantiago Alejandro, Rémy Cailliatte, Carine Alcon, Léon Dirick, Frédéric Domergue, David Correia, Loren Castaings, Jean-François Briat, Stéphane Mari, Catherine Curie

Current Position: INRA, Plant2Pro Carnot Institute Scientific Director, Plant Biology and Breeding Divi-sion Assistant Director

Education: M.S. in Agronomy (2004); PhD (2008) in Genetics and Integrative Plant Biology

Non-scientific Interests: Rock-climbing, mountaineering, space exploration, my kids

As far as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by biology and space explo-ration. One would say that both are not compatible, but what about creating plants to be grown on Mars? This inspired me to dedicate my studies to agronomy (Masters degree, 2004) and plant biology. I did my PhD thesis in the “Iron team” with Cather-ine Curie at BPMP in Montpellier (France) to characterize the physiological and bi-ological functions of members of the plant NRAMP family. Mars is the “Red planet” because of iron oxides present on its surface. But, as I was trying hard to understand the role of NRAMPs in iron homeostasis, I harvested evidence, based on the first results that I obtained with NRAMP2, that those guys play a key role in manganese homeostasis. Wow! Mighty manganese was finally under the spotlight and opened the way to enthousiastic results, some of them are described in this paper. After that experience, I took advantage of my research background to join the French Ministry of Agriculture and participate in managing public policies dealing with crop genetic improvement. I am currently working at INRA, the French Agronomic Research Institute, where I am coordinating pre-breeding and breeding research programs and public labs-industry partnerships to stimulate crop production transition to agro-ecology. From agroecology to Mars, how big is the step?

7

Lingling Cheng

Highlighted Paper RNase H1 Cooperates with DNA Gyrases to Restrict R-Loops and Maintain Genome Integrity in Arabidopsis ChloroplastsZhuo Yang, Quancan Hou, Lingling Cheng, Wei Xu, Yan-tao Hong, Shuai Li, Qianwen Sun

Current Position: PhD Student, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University

Education: Bachelor in College of Life Sciences and Technology, Huang Zhong University of Science and Technology (HUST)

Non-scientific Interests: Reading, watching movies, and playing badminton

Afer gradudating from HUST, I became a PhD student in Dr. Sun’s lab in Tsinghua University. My reasearch focuses on: (1) the function and regulation of R-loops in plant organelles; and (2) epigenetic regulation of histone modifications in Arabidopsis.

8

Mawsheng Chern

Highlighted Paper The Sequences of 1504 Mutants in the Model Rice Variety Kitaake Facilitate Rapid Functional Genomic StudiesGuotian Li, Rashmi Jain, Mawsheng Chern, Nikki T. Pham, Joel A. Martin, Tong Wei, Wendy S. Schackwitz, Anna M. Lipzen, Phat Q. Duong, Kyle C. Jones, Liangrong Jiang, Deling Ruan, Diane Bauer, Yi Peng, Kerrie W. Barry, Jeremy Schmutz, Pamela C. Ronald

Current Position: Associate Project Scientist, Depart-ment of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, and the Joint BioEnergy Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Education: BS and MS from National Taiwan University; Ph D in Biological Sciences from University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Non-scientific Interests: Practice of Tai-chi and Buddhism

I generated the mutant population in the Kitaake rice genetic background initially for forward-genetics screens using fast neutron irradiation a few years ago. When whole genome re-sequencing became more and more affordable, we decided to pur-sue sequencing of individual plants in this mutant collection to establish a fast-neu-tron-induced mutant resource for rice functional genomics. We were able to achieve this goal thanks to the collaboration with the Joint Genome Institute. We are current-ly still expanding the number of our sequenced rice mutant lines and hoping to reach a greater coverage of the rice genome (aiming for 90%), thanks to the support from the Joint BioEnergy Institute.

9

Young B. Cho

Highlighted Paper Mutations in Argonaute5 Illuminate Epistatic Interactions of the K1 and I Loci Leading to Saddle Seed Color Patterns in Glycine maxYoung B. Cho, Sarah I. Jones, Lila O. Vodkin

Current Position: Post-doctoral Research Associate, Ort Lab, USDA-ARS, Global Change and Photosyn-thesis Research Unit

Education: PhD, Crop Sciences, University of Illinois

Non-scientific Interests: Wife, family, friends, and Lionel Messi

I remember a class in which my PhD advisor Dr. Lila Vodkin introduced her paper (Tuteja et al. 2009, Plant Cell) that described small RNAs regulating pigmentation of the soybean seed coat in a tissue-specific manner. She added it was still unknown why some seeds show spatial pigmentation patterns within the seed coat. I was in-trigued by the pigment patterns and this paper (Cho et al. 2017, Plant Cell) addresses that question. My interests are in how sRNA is expressed and regulated in plants in tissue-, developmental stage- and pattern- specific manners so that it can be used more precisely as a tool to change plant traits. I am currently evaluating sRNA as a delicate gene regulation tool for optimizing photosynthetic efficiency of plants in Dr. Don Ort’s lab.

10

Rakesh David

Highlighted Paper Transcriptome-Wide Mapping of RNA 5- Methylcytosine in Arabidopsis mRNAs and Non-Coding RNAsRakesh David, Alice Burgess, Brian Parker, Jun Li, Kalinya Pulsford, Tennille Sibbritt, Thomas Preiss, Iain Robert Searle

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, University of Adelaide

Education: PhD, Plant Molecular Biology, Plant Sci-ence Division, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Australia

Non-scientific Interests: Cycling, cricket, movies, and reading

My interest in the area of gene regulation first began during my Masters project in Bernie Carroll’s lab (University of Queensland, Australia) that investigated small non-coding RNAs as epigenetic regulators of gene expression. During my PhD study (Josette Masle’s lab, Australian National University), I further pursued my interests in gene regulation, this time focusing on a family of kinases critical to plant develop-ment and pathogen response. After graduating, I realized that in order to fully appre-ciate the intricate ways plants fine-tune gene regulation, I had to take a step back and tackle this issue at the transcriptome level. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to do this in Iain Searle’s lab (corresponding author, University of Adelaide) where I joined as a postdoctoral researcher. Iain was interested in post-transcriptional RNA modi-fications, particularly 5-methylcytosine (m5C), and sought to map this modification in the transcriptome of the model plant species Arabidopsis. Using bisulfite conver-sion and Illumina sequencing (bsRNA-seq), hundreds of m5C sites were mapped and a key enzyme mediating methylation of those sites, TRM4B, was identified. We showed that TRM4B is important in regulating cell division and the oxidative stress response, functions that are mirrored in orthologs of other eukaryotes, highlighting the conserved nature of m5C modification through evolution. I believe the field of RNA modifications or epitranscriptomics provides another regulatory layer of gene regulation, the implications of which are only beginning to be understood.

11

Alisandra Denton

Highlighted Paper De Novo Assembly of a New Solanum pennellii Accession Using Nanopore SequencingMaximilian H.-W. Schmidt, Alexander Vogel, Alisandra K. Denton, Benjamin Istace, Alexandra Wormit, Henri van de Geest, Marie E. Bolger, Saleh Alseekh, Janina Maß, Christian Pfaff, Ulrich Schurr, Roger Chetelat, Florian Maumus, Jean-Marc Aury, Sergey Koren, Alisdair R. Fernie, Dani Zamir, Anthony M. Bolger, Björn Usadel

Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Applying Deep Learning to the Plant Transcriptome, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf

Education: MSc (2015) and PhD (2015) in Plant Biochemistry, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf; BA (2010) in Molecular Biology, Colgate University, Hamilton

Non-scientific Interests: Running, hiking, reading, puzzles, programming

During my bachelor I first learned about the brand new and exciting high-through-put technologies, which we now refer to as 2nd generation sequencing. Only a few years later in my PhD, earlier competitors had already largely given way to Illumina, and I had the opportunity to work on several plant transcriptomics projects. During this time I developed skills in both general programming and more specifically the analysis of 2nd generation sequencing data, from basic handling, to alignment, assembly, and statistics. These large scale studies allowed for a more holistic pic-ture of e.g. plant development than had been previously possible. By the time I was nearing the end of my PhD the continued development of long-range sequencing technologies such as jumping libraries and long-read sequencing was rapidly making sequencing of larger plant genomes—not just transcriptomes—accessible to individ-ual laboratories. For my first post doctoral position, I joined the Usadel lab at RWTH Aachen both to learn more on genomics and generally keep improving my bioinfor-matics skills. Working with the nanopore data was an exciting chance to bring a new technology into the field of plant genomics and the sheer length of reads obtained was both theoretically and practically valuable in resolving repetitive regions. With data production still outpacing data analysis, I’m excited to explore the use of deep learning in biological sequence analysis in my new position back at Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf.

12

Hong-Chao Duan

Highlighted Paper ALKBH10B is An RNA N6-Methyladenosine Demethylase Affecting Arabidopsis Floral TransitionHong-Chao Duan, Lian-Huan Wei, Chi Zhang, Ye Wang, Lin Chen, Zhike Lu, Peng R Chen, Chuan He, Guifang Jia

Current Position: Research Assistant, Peking Univer-sity, China

Education: BE (2011) Software Engineering, Nankai University, China; PhD (2017) Chemical Biology, Peking University, China. BS (2011) Chemistry, Nankai University, China

Non-scientific Interests: Photography, popular science writing (tens of thousands of followers at “zhihu,” a Chinese SNS website), volunteering at a local stray animal rescue program

When I began my graduate school experience as a PhD student in 2011, the research into epitranscriptomics, or “RNA epigenetics”, was just launched along with the discovery of the first m6A demethylase FTO, but I did not participate until 2013. At that time, I was just preparing my doctoral dissertation proposal, and Dr. Guifang Jia, who discovered the first RNA modification m6A demethylase-FTO in 2011, intended to extend the epitranscriptomics research from mammals to higher plants. Therefore I joined the project and started my long journey to pursue these tiny mod-ifications and their functions in Arabidopsis. In the years before that (2011–2013), I had focused on a project of protein/nucleic acid complex crystalization (the protein, ALKBH3, was proved to be an mRNA m1A demethylase later), receiving scientific training on protein biology, nucleic acid biology, and enzymology, so I decided to seek the m6A demethylase of plant mRNA first. ALKBH10B, as reported in this paper, is one of a series of candidates. It provides evidence that m6A modification is reversible in plants, which is a new layer of post-transcriptional regulation. At present, I am working on other demethylase candidates, the role of m6A in nuclear mRNA processing and a new plant-specific RNA modification.

13

Akihito Fukudome

Highlighted Paper Salt Stress and CTD PHOSPHATASE-LIKE 4 Me-diate the Switch between Production of Small Nuclear RNAs and mRNAsAkihito Fukudome, Di Sun, Xiuren Zhang, Hisashi Koiwa

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington

Education: PhD, Molecular and Environmental Plant Sciences, Texas A&M University, Master of Agriculture, Department of Bioregulation and Biointeraction, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan

Non-scientific Interests: Reading, listening to music, watching movies, photography

I like to ponder big questions such as “what/who are we?” I was fascinated by molecular biology, especially RNA biology when I was an undergraduate student. I was fortunate enough to join Dr. Toshiyuki Fukuhara’s lab, where I got a master’s degree in studying activities and interactions among Dicer-like proteins and dou-ble-stranded RNA binding proteins in RNA silencing in Arabidopsis. Then, for my PhD, studying double-stranded RNA binding domains of some Pol II CTD phospha-tase-like proteins brought me to Dr. Hisashi Koiwa’s lab at Texas A&M University. With his great guidance, it didn’t take long before I got very interested in how a CTD phosphatase-like protein regulates Pol II-CTD phosphorylation and expression of protein-coding and non-coding RNAs in plants, leading to this study. Currently, as a postdoc, I find it very exciting to keep working in the RNA biology field, expanding what I have learned in previous studies and delving into the similar mechanisms from different perspectives. It has been and will continue to be my hope to contrib-ute to the field and science in general.

14

Kyung-Eun Gil

Highlighted Paper ZEITLUPE Contributes to a Thermoresponsive Protein Quality Control System in ArabidopsisKyung-Eun Gil, Woe-Yeon Kim, Hyo-Jun Lee, Moham-mad Faisal, Quaiser Saquib, Abdulrahman A. Alatar, Chung-Mo Park

Current Position: PhD student in Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University, Seoul, Repub-lic of Korea

Education: BS in Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University

Non-scientific Interests: Drawing, jigsaw puzzles, and visiting art museums

When I was a child, I wanted to be an artist. But when I went to college, I majored in Chemistry, and now I’m studying plant biology in Dr.Park’s lab. I still love drawing, but I feel that it is not enough to devote my whole life. I have been fascinated by life science and so began research on plant biology. It is very interesting to observe life cycle and analyze adaptive stretgies of plants under various environmental condi-tions. It is fascinating to me to discover the similarity between plant biology and my favorite hobbies. I think that the process of discovering unknown molecular mech-anisms is similar to that of matching jigsaw puzzles and drawing pictures. In the future, I will focus on alternative splicing as a component of the circadian clock in Arabidopsis and I hope the findings will contribute to scientific development in this field.

15

Nerina Gnesutta

Highlighted Paper CONSTANS Imparts DNA Sequence Specificity to the Histone Fold NF-YB/NF-YC DimerNerina Gnesutta, Roderick W. Kumimoto, Swadhin Swain, Matteo Chiara, Chamindika Siriwardana, David S. Horner, Ben F. Holt, Roberto Mantovani

Current Position: Assistant Professor in Biochemis-try, Human Molecular Genetics Group, Department of Biosciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

Education: PhD Molecular and Cellular Biology, Department of General Physiology and Biochemistry, Università degli Studi di Milano

Non-scientific Interests: Baking bread and cakes, sailing, and solving crossword puzzles

During my post-graduate studies in Milan and as a PostDoc at Columbia University in NYC, I have been interested in molecular networks of signaling proteins that con-trol growth, differentiation and survival in mammalian cells. After returning to Italy as Assistant Professor, I started to analyse gene expression regulation by studying molecular interactions of transcription factors with a structural approach, focusing on the histone-like TF NF-Y, and its role as promoter organiser. Within this fruitful collaboration with Prof. Roberto Mantovani, I contributed to determining the 3D structure of the NF-Y heterotrimer in complex with its target DNA element, the CCAAT box. More recently, I became involved in Plant Sciences, as I was mesmer-ized by the numerous processes in which NF-Y subunits genes are implicated, and by the combinatorial potential of this multigene TF family in plants. We set out to exploit our knowledge on the mammalian NF-Y to start to untangle and clarify the molecular interactions of plant-specific TFs involved in flowering time. With our work published in this issue of Plant Cell, we could establish that the histone-fold dimeric subunits of NF-Y can partake in different TF complexes by providing a scaffold for sequence-specific DNA recognition of CONSTANS, opening suggestive scenarios on timely control of transcriptional regulation by histone-fold based TF complexes.

16

Oliver Godfroy

Highlighted Paper DISTAG/TBCCd1 Is Required for Basal Cell Fate Determination in EctocarpusOlivier Godfroy, Toshiki Uji, Chikako Nagasato, Agniesz-ka P. Lipinska, Delphine Scornet, Akira F. Peters, Komlan Avia, Sebastien Colin, Laure Mignerot, Taizo Motomura, J. Mark Cock, Susana M. Coelho

Current Position: Research Assistant in the Transla-tional Gene Therapy Group, Nantes Hospital

Education: MS in Informatic, Rennes I University; PhD in Plant Biotechnologies at the National Institue of Agriculture Research (INRA), Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France

Non-scientific Interests: History, gardening and bonsai trees, being a dad

Wanting to understand “how does it work?” led me to scientific research and specifically functional biology. After a PhD studying the genetic regulation of root symbioses establishment, I took the opportunity to join the Roscoff Marine Station to participate in the emergence of the brown alga Ectocarpus as genetic model for brown algae. I’m fascinated by these organisms that have been forced to deploy in-genious developmental and life cycle plasticity to adapt to their extremely changing environment. I hope that our contribution for deciphering the molecular mechanism that underpins the Ectocarpus basal development will facilitate the understanding of those adaptive responses.

17

Vera Gorelova

Highlighted Paper Dihydrofolate Reductase/Thymidylate Synthase Fine-tunes the Folate Status and Controls Redox HomeostasisVera Gorelova, Jolien De Lepeleire, Jeroen Van Daele, Dick Pluim, Coline Meï, Ann Cuypers, Olivier Leroux, Fabrice Rébeillé, Jan H.M. Schellens, Dieter Blancquaert, Christo-phe P. Stove, Dominique Van Der Straeten

Current Position: PhD Candidate at Ghent University looking for a new challenge

Education: MSc. in Biology, Novosibirsk State Uni-versity, Russia

Non-scientific Interests: Travelling, books, baking and eating cakes, skateboarding, playing guitar, being with Gosha

I started working as a plant biologist during my Master’s studies at Prof. Kochetov’s lab at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics (ICG) (Novosibirsk, Russia) where I investigated a gene involved in proline biosynthesis, an osmolyte involved in plant stress tolerance. Working at ICG I became eager to study how plants adjust their metabolism to withstand environmental stress. For my PhD studies, I joined Prof. Van Der Straeten’s lab at Gent University to investigate the DHFR-TS gene family involved in folate (vitamin B9) biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. We found a hitherto unknown function of folate metabolism in the regulation of redox balance in plants. Now my mind is captivated by the processes that govern plant development. I would like to study how developmental programs are implemented and how plant develop-ment is regulated in response to environmental cues.

18

Andre Greiner

Highlighted Paper Targeting of Photoreceptor Genes in Chlamydo-monas reinhardtii via Zinc-finger Nucleases and CRISPR/Cas9Andre Greiner, Simon Kelterborn, Heide Evers, Georg Kreimer, Irina Sizova, Peter Hegemann

Current Position: Postdoctoral Associate in the Lab of Prof. Peter Hegemann, Experimental Biophysics, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany

Education: B.Sc in Biology, Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany; M.Sc in Biology, Julius- Maximilians University, Wuerzburg, Germany; PhD in Experimental Biophysics, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany

Non-scientific Interests: Family, motorcycling, snowboarding, traveling

As part of my Master’s thesis on the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii model, I had the chance to perform an internship in the Rosenbaum lab at Yale University. During this stay, I was invited to attend the ASCB meeting in Washington DC, where I was introduced to literally all US labs working on Chlamydomonas flagella. Back in Germany, inspired by this collaborative and friendly community spirit, I decided to stay in Chlam-ydomonas research. The missing genetic toolkit in these algae led me to my doctoral work in the lab of Professor Hegemann. My primary purpose was to optimize gene targeting in Chlamydomonas towards a technology that allows, first of all, efficient gene disruption and ultimately, precise and predictable gene editing in a variety of Chlam-ydomonas strains. In an early phase of the project, zinc-finger-nuclease (ZFN) technol-ogy emerged. The work of our team resulted in the deletion of a non-selectable gene in Chlamydomonas using ZFNs before CRISPR/Cas9 technology emerged in 2014. As a postdoc, I decided to continue my research and to transfer the knowledge gained from ZFN work aiming to establish CRISPR/Cas9 in Chlamydomonas. Now, with the CRISPR technology in hand, we hope that the Chlamydomonas model will attract new scientists and that the community will be able to address previously inaccessible questions.

19

Elizabeth Henry

Highlighted Paper Direct and Indirect Visualization of Bacterial Effector Delivery into Diverse Plant Cell Types during InfectionElizabeth Henry, Tania Y. Toruño, Alain Jauneau, Laurent Deslandes, Gitta Coaker

Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Discovery and Project Support in Crop Efficiency and Seed Growth, Biologics R&D at Bayer Crop Science

Education: BS (2008) Botany, University of Wisconsin, Madison; PhD (2016) Plant Pathology, University of California at Davis

Non-scientific Interests: Running; hiking; climbing; yoga; just being outside and active in general, especially when visiting new places; gardening indoors and out; and spend-ing quality time with my friends and family (often in the kitchen, cooking and trying new recipes together)

My research career began as an undergraduate in Dr. Edgar Spalding’s lab at UW Madison, where I worked with auxin efflux mutants in Arabidopsis. I continued work-ing there for two years after graduation as a lab technician and was able to hone my basic research skills with extensive genotyping to support a robotic high-throughput phenotyping project, and a separate research project on auxin transport inhibition in roots by a small molecule. In 2010 I joined the lab of Dr. Gitta Coaker in the department of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Davis, to pursue my long-time passion of molecular plant-microbe interactions. My first PhD project analyzed the complex role of a highly conserved glycolytic protein in several plant immune responses to the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. The interplay between metabolism and innate immunity remains a great interest of mine. My second PhD project focused on the development of a molecular tool that allows visualization of bacterial protein delivery into plant cells. The molecular tool is a significant advance to the field of effector biology, and can be broadly utilized to study bacterial or fungal protein delivery from a diverse range of microbes. Currently, as a postdoc at the Bayer Crop Science Biologics division in West Sacramento, I am uti-lizing my plant-microbe interaction expertise to examine the relationships between crop plants and plant growth promoting bacteria.

20

Richard Hickman

Highlighted Paper Architecture and Dynamics of the Jasmonic Acid Gene Regulatory NetworkRichard Hickman, Marcel C. Van Verk, Anja J.H. Van Dijken, Marciel Pereira Mendes, Irene A. Vroegop-Vos, Lotte Caarls, Merel Steenbergen, Ivo Van der Nagel, Gert Jan Wesselink, Aleksey Jironkin, Adam Talbot, Johanna Rhodes, Michel De Vries, Robert C. Schuurink, Katherine Denby, Corné M.J. Pieterse, Saskia C.M. Van Wees

Current Position: VENI Postdoctoral Fellow, Plant-Microbe Interactions, Utrecht University

Education: MSc Computer Science, BSc Bioinformatics, University of Birmingham; PhD in Systems Biology, University of Warwick

Non-scientific Interests: Football, running, travel, cooking

During my PhD I utilized several novel high-resolution expression time series datasets that profiled the response to different environmental stresses in Arabidop-sis as part of a large systems biology project in order to investigate transcriptional networks underlying these processes. After my doctoral studies I moved to the Plant-Microbe Interactions group at Utrecht University where I switched focus, slighty, to study the gene regulatory networks controlled by immune-related phyto-hormones such as jasmonic acid. Different genomics techniques are used to produce large-scale datasets that can be analyzed with a range of computational tools to gen-erate novel insights into the functioning of phytohormone-controlled gene regulato-ry networks in Arabidopsis.

21

Quancan Hou

Highlighted Paper RNase H1 Cooperates with DNA Gyrases to Restrict R-Loops and Maintain Genome Integrity in Arabidopsis ChloroplastsZhuo Yang, Quancan Hou, Lingling Cheng, Wei Xu, Yan-tao Hong, Shuai Li, Qianwen Sun

Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Center for Plant Biology and Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Education: PhD, Institute of Molecular Physiology and Biotechnology of Plants (IMBIO), University of Bonn, Germany.

Non-scientific Interests: Football, photography, and experiencing different cultures

I did my PhD study in Germany in where I focused on the function of aldehyde dehydrogenases in plant abiotic stress tolerance. After I received my doctoral degree, I returned to China and joined in Dr. Qianwen Sun’s lab as a post-doctoral fellow in Tsinghua University. Now, the main focus of my research is on R-loop dynamics and the relevant biological roles in plant development and response to environmental factors.

22

Qing Hu

Highlighted Paper MEICA 1 (meiotic chromosome association 1) interacts with TOP3α and regulates meiotic recombination in riceQing Hu, Yafei Li, Hongjun Wang, Yi Shen, Chao Zhang, Guijie Du, Ding Tang, Zhukuan Cheng

Current Position: Research Associate, Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute

Education: BS in Biological Sciences at Ludong University; PhD in Genetics at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Non-scientific Interests: Hiking, photography, and cooking

In Prof. Zhukuan Cheng’s lab in the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, we have been studying plant meiosis using rice as the model. My PhD research focuses on the mechanisms of meiotic recombination. I identified several factors, including OsRAD1 and MEICA1, that are essential for double-strand break (DSB) repair during meiosis. During this process, I became more and more interested in the mechanism of how organisms maintain their ge-nomic integrity, especially when more than one DSB appears at the same time, such as during meiosis. I am now working with mammalian cells to explore the pathways of DSB repair and I hope to have interesting findings in this field.

23

Masanori Izumi

Highlighted Paper Entire Photodamaged Chloroplasts Are Trans-ported to the Central Vacuole by AutophagyMasanori Izumi, Hiroyuki Ishida, Sakuya Nakamura, Jun Hidema

Current Position: Assistant Professor, Frontier Re-search Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University

Education: Ph.D. (2012), Graduate School of Agricul-tural Sciences, Tohoku University, Japan

Non-scientific Interests: Playing tennis, Travel to Japanese hot springs

When I was an undergraduate student, I joined Dr. Hiroyuki Ishida’s research group, which is working to identify the degradation mechanism of chloroplast proteins during leaf senescence. This gave me a chance to realize the interesting nature of chloroplasts. I performed research demonstrating that chloroplasts are partially degraded via a type of autophagic vesicles known as Rubisco-containing bodies (RCBs). This included two collaborative works with Prof. Yoshinori Ohsumi, a winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In my Ph.D. research, I revealed the physiological importance of RCB pathway under energy-limited con-ditions. As a post-doc, I was awarded a grant for young scientists from the Japanese government as a hosted researcher in Dr. Jun Hidema’s Lab, in which the members are focused on plant response to ultraviolet-B (UVB) damage. I exposed Arabidopsis autophagy-deficient mutants to UVB and found that they showed a UVB-sensitive phenotype. Because I then expected that the RCB pathway was specifically activated by UVB damage, I carried out detailed imaging analysis with confocal microscopy. Although this original expectation was not true, I noticed that chlorophagy, the vacuolar transport and destruction of entire chloroplasts by autophagy, occurs in UVB-damaged leaves. This is the topic of our current article. During this work, I became an assistant professor as an independent researcher. Our small group still has many questions about chlorophagy such as how photodamaged chloroplasts are recognized and recruited for autophagy. We are attempting to elucidate these and other interesting questions.

24

Rashmi Jain

Highlighted Paper The Sequences of 1504 Mutants in the Model Rice Variety Kitaake Facilitate Rapid Functional Genomic StudiesGuotian Li, Rashmi Jain, Mawsheng Chern, Nikki T. Pham, Joel A. Martin, Tong Wei, Wendy S. Schackwitz, Anna M. Lipzen, Phat Q. Duong, Kyle C. Jones, Liangrong Jiang, Deling Ruan, Diane Bauer, Yi Peng, Kerrie W. Barry, Jeremy Schmutz, Pamela C. Ronald

Current Position: Assistant Specialist in Prof. Pamela Ronald’s Lab, University of California-Davis and Feedstock Division, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Law-rence Berkeley National Laboratory

Education: MSc (2006) in Bioinformatics, Sikkim Manipal University, India

Non-scientific Interests: Painting, cooking, watching movies, listening to music

I was born at Palwal, a small town in Haryana state in India. While being a biology undergraduate I got attracted to learn computer concepts and programming and joined Aptech Computer Education. After getting my bachelor degree I got a chance to learn bioinformatics, a blend of Biology and Computer Science. I took admission for Masters in Bioinformatics, while studying I got practical experience by working with eminent scientist at University of Delhi. There I learned more about Genome analysis, functional genomics, phylogenetic and data curation. In 2013, I joined Pamela Ronald’s lab and I got a wonderful opportunity to work on Fast Neutron gen-erated Kitaake rice mutant collection project, where I work with bioinformaticians from the Joint Genome Institute and many other brilliant scientists from UC-Davis. I always feel proud of working on this project which facilitates forward and reverse genetics and help many researchers. While analyzing data and developing online resource for this collection I always enjoyed my work and yes there is still a long way to go. We aim to sequence 4000 mutants and would keep updating KitBase.

25

Tianran Jia

Highlighted Paper The Arabidopsis MOS4-Associated Complex Promotes MicroRNA Biogenesis and Precursor Messenger RNA SplicingTianran Jia, Bailong Zhang, Chenjiang You, Yong Zhang, Liping Zeng, Shengjun Li, Kaeli C.M. Johnson, Bin Yu, Xin Li, Xuemei Chen

Current Position: PhD Degree Candidate in Botany and Plant Science, University of California, Riverside

Education: Bachelor of Science in Biology (with Hon-ors) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Master of Philosophy in Biology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong; PhD in Botany and Plant Science at University of California Riverside

Non-scientific Interests: Painting, baking, home decorating and design, visiting museums

I was attracted to plant research when working as an undergraduate helper in Prof. Liwen Jiang’s lab at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. I studied plant cell biology and membrane trafficking in Prof. Jiang’s lab and received my Master’s degree. During this process, I became more and more interested in plant molecular biology research and decided to pursue my PhD degree in the same research field. In 2012, I joined Prof. Xuemei Chen’s lab at the University of California, Riverside to study small RNAs. Through collaborations with several postdocs in Prof. Chen’s lab and other labs, I found that the MOS4-associated complex (MAC) and the MAC7 subunit in particular promote microRNA biogenesis and precursor messenger RNA processing in Arabidopsis. During my PhD studies in Prof. Chen’s lab, I received broad scientific training in genetics, biochemistry and bioinformatics with the help from many people, particularly Prof. Xuemei Chen, and Drs. Chenjiang You and Brandon Le. Now I look forward to applying my research skills to biotechnology in industry.

26

Kristoffer Jonsson

Highlighted Paper Ethylene Regulates Differential Growth via BIG ARF-GEF-Dependent Post-Golgi Secretory Trafficking in ArabidopsisKristoffer Jonsson, Yohann Boutté, Rajesh Kumar Singh, Delphine Gendre, Rishikesh P. Bhalerao

Current Position: PhD Student at Ume å Plant Science Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden

Education: MS in Plant and Forest Biotechnology, Umeå University; BS in Molecular Biology at Umeå University

Non-scientific Interests: Spending time with my son, playing music, enjoying the outdoors, ice hockey statistics, world politics, baking

As with many things in my life, I stumbled onto biology. I find most facets of life fascinating, from the arts, humanities to social and natural sciences, and could have chosen either direction. However, in biology I have, like countless people before me, come face to face with the big questions, those concerning life itself. As a PhD stu-dent in the lab of Prof. Rishi Bhalerao I have been studying intracellular trafficking processes, and their connection to the developmental output of the apical hook. I am deeply intrigued by how organisms, starting from a single cell with a set blueprint, their genome, obtain their myriad shapes in a precisely regulated manner. I hope to continue being a part of the scientific community piecing together the puzzle of life.

27

Simon Kelterborn

Highlighted Paper Targeting of Photoreceptor Genes in Chlam-ydomonas reinhardtii via Zinc-Finger Nucleases and CRISPR/Cas9Andre Greiner, Simon Kelterborn, Heide Evers, Georg Kreimer, Irina Sizova, Peter Hegemann

Current Position: PhD candidate in the Lab of Prof. Peter Hegemann, Experimental Biophysics, Hum-boldt University Berlin, Germany

Education: M.Sc and B.Sc. in Biology, University of Munich, Germany

Non-scientific Interests: Snowboarding, handcraft, mountains, running, concerts

During my Master’s studies, I was fascinated by the tools of synthetic biology. For-tunately enough, I was able to participate in the student’s competition iGEM, which is a very inspiring event for young researchers. When I realized that some of these molecular tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 have not yet been developed for microalgae, I made this my research project for my Master’s thesis in Jörg Nickelsen’s lab at the LMU Munich and continued this work during my PhD project in Peter Hegemann’s lab at the HU Berlin. In the future, I want to learn more about DNA repair mech-anisms to improve gene editing efficiency and help to establish CRISPR/Cas9 in non-model algae such as Chlorella ohadii in collaboration with Aaron Kaplan, HU Jerusalem.

28

Karen Kloth

Highlighted Paper SIEVE ELEMENT-LINING CHAPERONE1 Restricts Aphid Feeding on Arabidopsis during Heat StressKaren J. Kloth, Jacqueline Busscher-Lange, Gerrie L. Wiegers, Willem Kruijer, Gonda Buijs, Rhonda C. Meyer, Benedicte R. Albrectsen, Harro J. Bouwmeester, Marcel Dicke, Maarten A. Jongsma

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher

Education: PhD (2016) in Genetical Genomics of Plant–Aphid interactions at Wageningen Univeristy, The Netherlands

Non-scientific Interests: Swimming, snorkeling, cycling, gardening, road trips through northern Scandinavia

My scientific career started after a small detour. After obtaining my Master’s de-gree in Biology in 2004 at Wageningen University, I worked at the educational department of a zoo and later implemented international legislation for the trade in endangered animal and plant species at a governmental agency. I learned a lot about project management and working in a large organization. However, I craved doing research myself. In my free time, I followed courses in statistics, and in 2009 I quit half of my job to do an internship in molecular phylogenetics. It was 2011 when I started my PhD in molecular plant–insect interactions at Wageningen University and finally could dedicate all my time to science. That was also when the journey, resulting in our manuscript in this issue of The Plant Cell, started. Our small team built a video-tracking platform to study insect behavior. Tiny details made it chal-lenging. In the first prototypes, aphids escaped from the plates and condensation on the lid ruined the recordings. But once the platform was up and running, we had plenty of data for genomewide asscociation (GWA) mapping. It was very exciting when the electrical penetration graph recording confirmed the GWA results and convinced us that we had indeed identified a resistance gene. During the first part of my postdoctoral fellowship at Umeå Plant Science Centre, I worked on the localiza-tion of the protein. It was awesome to get that first glimpse of the YFP-construct in a phloem tube at the confocal microscope; that moment will probably stick in my mind for a long time.

29

Jae-Hyung Lee

Highlighted Paper Light Inhibits COP1-Mediated Degradation of ICE Transcription Factors to Induce Stomatal Development in ArabidopsisJae-Hyung Lee, Jae-Hoon Jung, Chung-Mo Park

Current Position: PhD candidate, Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Education: Doctor course completion in Biochemis-try, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Non-scientific Interests: Watching movies, reading, and playing soccer

Professor Park’s lab provides me an apportunity to research plant molecular biology. During my PhD course, I found that the small model plant Arabidopsis regulates its genes and proteins in an accurate manner in response to endogenous signals and external stimuli. Through two planned projects, I found that environmental cues and plant development are intimately related at the molecular level. I demonstrated singaling linkage between low temperature and flowering time control. Also, I found that light-mediated stomatal development is conducted by COP1-mediated surveil-lance system. I’m now focusing on elucidating additional mechanistic details on en-vironmental adaptation for plant development that are important for plant life cycle and meristem determinacy (floral reversion & flowering time). Several transcription factors, which are important for temperature and photoperiod sensing, have identi-fied in the developmental process. I hope my research contributes to understanding how plants interact with the environment in the future.

30

Guotian Li

Highlighted Paper The Sequences of 1504 Mutants in the Model Rice Variety Kitaake Facilitate Rapid Functional Genomic StudiesGuotian Li, Rashmi Jain, Mawsheng Chern, Nikki T. Pham, Joel A. Martin, Tong Wei, Wendy S. Schackwitz, Anna M. Lipzen, Phat Q. Duong, Kyle C. Jones, Liangrong Jiang, Deling Ruan, Diane Bauer, Yi Peng, Kerrie W. Barry, Jeremy Schmutz, Pamela C. Ronald

Current Position: Deputy Director of Grass Genetics/Project Scientist at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, a joint position between Lawrence Berkeley National Labora-tory and the University of California, Davis

Education: PhD, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University

Non-scientific Interests: Traveling, reading, and playing with kids

I completed my PhD in Dr. Jin-Rong Xu’s lab at Purdue University, working on MAPK signaling pathways in the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae (Li et al., Environmental Microbiology 2017). I was passionate about this fungal-rice patho-system but my experience in rice immunity was limited. After I finished my PhD, I was fortunate that Dr. Pamela Ronald at the University of California-Davis offered me a postdoc opportunity to work on rice. However, I quickly realized that working on a plant species that typically has a life cycle of six months is challenging. Taking advantage of the resource in the laboratory, I co-led the team at the University of California-Davis and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) to establish this whole-genome sequenced mutant population in the model rice variety Kitaake that can be grown up to four generations a year. We are sequencing more mutants and assembling the Kitaake genome and will provide a complete toolkit to accelerate rice functional genomics.

31

Huchen Li

Highlighted Paper Plant-Specific Histone Deacetylases HDT1/2 Regulate GIBBERELLIN 2-OXIDASE2 Expression to Control Arabidopsis Root Meristem Cell NumberHuchen Li, Jesus Torres-Garcia, David Latrasse, Mous-sa Benhamed, Stefan Schilderink, Wenkun Zhou, Olga Kulikova, Heribert Hirt, Ton Bisseling

Current Position: Researcher, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Wageningen University & Research

Education: PhD: BS (2008) in Biology at Shandong Normal University, China; MS (2012) in Chinese Traditional Medicine at Beijing Normal University, China; Graduate School of Experimental Plant Science (EPS), The Netherlands

Non-scientific Interests: Hiking, swimming, and reading

After completing my B.S. in Biology and M.S. in Chinese Traditional Medicine, I discovered my curiosity about how the plant reprograms its metabolism and tran-scriptional network to adapt to the constantly changing surroundings. I then got the opportunity to join Ton Bisseling’s lab (Wageningen University & Research) to con-duct my PhD research, focusing on studying the function of Arabidopsis plant-spe-cific histone feacetylases (AtHDTs) in root development and stress responses. Since then, I showed that AtHDT1/2 regulate the switch from cell division to expansion during root development under normal growth conditions. The next important point will be to test whether this mechanism is involved in adapting root growth to environmental stresses.

32

Yafei Li

Highlighted Paper MEICA 1 (Meiotic Chromosome Association 1) Interacts with TOP3α and Regulates Meiotic Recombination in RiceQing Hu, Yafei Li, Hongjun Wang, Yi Shen, Chao Zhang, Guijie Du, Ding Tang, Zhukuan Cheng

Current Position: Research Associate, Institute of Ge-netics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Education: PhD, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Non-scientific Interests: Spending time with my son, swimming, and reading

I got my master and doctoral degrees in rice germplasm resources in the Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. My M.S thesis research focused on the genetic diversity of wild rice, and my PhD thesis focused on QTL mapping for abiotic stress tolerance in lowland rice and upland rice. After com-pleting my doctoral courses, I moved to Dr. Zhukuan Cheng’s lab in the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences as a Research Associate. Now, the main focus of my research is to explore the molecular mecha-nisms of crossover formation in rice meiosis.

33

Tengfang Ling

Highlighted Paper Host-Mediated S-Nitrosylation Disarms the Bacterial Effector HopAI1 to Re-Establish ImmunityTengfang Ling, Diana Bellin, Elodie Vandelle, Zahra Imanifard, Massimo Delledonne

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Plant Systems Engineering Research Center, Korea Research Insti-tute of Bioscience & Biotechnology, Daejeon, South Korea

Education: BS, Biological Sciences, Nanjing Agricul-tural University, China; PhD, Biotechnology, University of Verona, Italy

Non-scientific Interests: Photography and sports

I started my scientific career in Prof. Shen’s lab, Nanjing Agricultural University, as a master’s student studying NO function in plant abiotic stress, where we found that NO can rescue the wheat root under salty stress by delaying programmed cell death of root. In my subsequent PhD study in Prof. Delledonne’s lab, I have been working on NO and investigating its role in plant–pathogen interactions, in particular the Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato(Pst)—Arabidopsis interaction during plant disease resistance. We found that during the hypersensitive response the plant host employs NO-mediated S-nitrosylation to disarm the type III effector HopAI1, which targets and suppresses MAPK signaling, and restores plant immunity. Later, I moved to Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology and continued working on the role of plasma membrane phospholipids during systemic acquired resistance in Arabidopsis.

34

Xiaoqin Liu

Highlighted Paper EIN3 and PIF3 Form an Interdependent Module That Represses Chloroplast Development in Buried SeedlingsXiaoqin Liu, Renlu Liu, Yue Li, Xing Shen, Shangwei Zhong, Hui Shi

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Plant Devel-opmental Biology, Peking University, China

Education: PhD, Plant Nutrition and Molecular Biol-ogy, Nanjing Agricultural University, China

Non-scientific Interests: Reading, photography, and watching movies

My PhD research focused on the rice high-affinity nitrate transporters. Specifically, I studied the regulation of OsNAR2.1 and its interaction with OsNRT2 members. During my PhD study, I became very interested about how plant seedlings grow out of soil and what are the regulators underlying this crucial process. Therefore, I joined Prof. Shangwei Zhong’s lab at Peking University to start my post-doctoral studies after graduation. The early life of terrestrial seed plants often starts under the soil in darkness. After germination, seedlings grow upwards to emerge from the soil and acquire autotrophic ability in light. During this process, the plant hormone ethylene is utilized by plants to adjust their morphogenesis in response to the soil mechanical pressure. My study is about how plant seedlings integrate multiple signals, such as environmental light signal and endogenous plant hormones, to precisely regulate seedling growth and development during the process of seedling emergence from the soil.

35

Xinye Liu

Highlighted Paper Mutations in eIF5B Confer Thermosensitive and Pleiotropic Phenotypes via Translation Defects in Arabidopsis thalianaLiyuan Zhang, Xinye Liu, Kishor Gaikwad, Xiaoxia Kou, Fei Wang, Xuejun Tian, Mingming Xin, Zhongfu Ni, Qixin Sun, Huiru Peng, Elizabeth Vierling

Current Position: PhD Candidate, State Key Labora-tory of Agrobiotechnology, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University

Education: Bachelor’s Degree, College of Agronomy, Agricultural University of Hebei

Non-scientific Interests: Table tennis, badminton, and reading

I am pursing my doctoral degree in prof. Qixin Sun & Huiru Peng’s lab, in the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University. I am mainly responsible for the bioinformatic data analyses of lab. Now, my PhD thesis focus on the genomic variations and transcrip-tomic changes during wheat hexaploidization events.

36

Qiang Luo

Highlighted Paper The Histone Chaperone NRP1 Interacts with WEREWOLF to Activate GLABRA2 in Arabidopsis Root Hair DevelopmentYan Zhu, Liang Rong, Qiang Luo, Baihui Wang, Nana Zhou, Yue Yang, Chi Zhang, Haiyang Feng, Lina Zheng, Wen-Hui Shen, Jinbiao Ma, Aiwu Dong

Current Position: PhD student in State Key Labora-tory of Genetic Engineering, Department of Bio-chemistry, Institute of Plant Biology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Education: BS (2014) in Biology Engineering at Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

Non-scientific Interests: Camping, playing table tennis, and watching movies

I was born in a small village in Sichun province of China. When I was in my high school, I found that biology is full of mysteries, which is really attractive and amaz-ing to me. So I chose biology as my major in Lanzhou University. Later I contin-ued my biological research at Fudan University in the labs of Dr. Aiwu Dong, Dr. Wen-Hui Shen, and Dr. Jinbiao Ma. We are very interested in molecular mechanisms of epigenetic regulation, especially the function of histone chaperones and histone modifications. I mainly worked on biochemical experiments to explore the inter-actions among the histone chaperone NRP1, the transcription factor WER, and the GL2 promoter. I will continue to explore the complex structures of histone chaper-ones with histones and with transcription factors in the future.

37

James K. McCarthy

Highlighted Paper Nitrate Reductase Knockout Uncouples Nitrate Transport from Nitrate Assimilation and Drives Repartitioning of Carbon Flux in a Model Pennate DiatomJames K. McCarthy, Sarah R. Smith, John P. McCrow, Maxine Tan, Hong Zheng, Karen Beeri, Robyn Roth, Christian Lichtle, Ursula Goodenough, Chris P. Bowler, Christopher L. Dupont, Andrew E. Allen

Current Position: Research Fellow, J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA

Education: BA English, Union College, Schenectady, NY; PhD, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Non-scientific Interests: Cooking, growing vegetables, composting, swimming in the ocean, photography, Irish traditional music

During my previous career as a cameraman, producer and writer for documentaries and educational films and videos, I realized that, rather than reporting on ideas and events, I wanted to actively participate in efforts to discover and characterize how the natural world functions. With a strong interest in alternative fuels, I landed in Doug Eveleigh’s lab at Rutgers, studying directed evolution of hyperthermophilic cellulases for my Ph.D. (2002). The opportunity to pursue molecular biological basis of marine bacterial manganese (Mn) oxidation led me to a post doc with Brad Tebo at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In the Tebo lab, I made the knockout of the first Mn-oxidase (there are two) in Pseudomonas putida GB-1; learned the basics of comparative genomics, identifying of genes unique to Mn-oxidation in two of six sequenced Pseudomonas strains; and participated in the manual annotation of Auran-timonas sp. SI85-9A1, a marine alpha-proteobacterium and Mn-oxidizer. It turned out—I liked analyzing sequencing data. In 2009, I joined Andy Allen’s lab at the J. Craig Venter Institute to help define nitrogen metabolism in diatoms. Using metatran-scriptomics, model-organism—Phaeodactylum tricornutum—transcriptomics, molec-ular biology, biochemistry and microscopy, I’ve focused on nitrate assimilation. The recent results observed in our nitrate reductase knockout strain suggests a mechanism by which P. tricornutum, and perhaps other diatoms, store nitrate in their vacuoles, and provides many new ideas for further characterization of diatom metabolism.

38

Patrice Morel

Highlighted Paper Divergence of the Floral A-function between an Asterid and a Rosid SpeciesPatrice Morel, Klaas Heijmans, Frédérique Rozier, Jan Zethof, Sophy Chamot, Suzanne Rodrigues Bento, Aurélie Vialette-Guiraud, Pierre Chambrier, Christophe Trehin, Michiel Vandenbussche

Current Position: INRA Senior Scientist, Evo-Devo of the Flower Team, Plant Reproduction and Devel-opment Laboratory at Ecole Normale Supérieure–Lyon, France

Education: PhD, Department of Biochemistry, University of Lyon, France

Non-scientific Interests: Down-hill skiing, rock climbing, watching movies, and creative writing

All of my life, I’ve been dreaming of a research position at INRA, the French Agronomic Research Institute. As a post-doctoral fellow, I worked on Agrobacterium tumefaciens plasmid Ti virulence genes in the USA. Then, back to France, my real life as a researcher started as I was hired by the INRA. I moved onto homologous recombination in Esche-richia coli and onto signal transduction studies in lactic acid bacteria. Small things–my first daughter’s birth–produced big changes; I moved from Paris to Lyon and from the bacteria field to plant research. Studies on multicellular organisms constituted a real challenge for me, and work on floral meristem determinacy in the rosid model plant Arabidopsis thaliana felt more like a walk on the wild side than on a stairway to heaven. However, with my colleague C. Trehin, we succeeded in characterizing some new genes involved in the determinacy network. Several years later, I jumped on the opportunity to start working on flower development in the asterid species Petunia hybrida. Every-thing became easier. Flowers were of a larger size, the transposon insertion mutant collection was much bigger and the field was wide open. Our work on the A function of the ABC model in Petunia inspired us to add new highlights to an old model, as described in this paper. We hope that our current research on sepallata function and nectary development will also break on through to the other side.

39

Jose M. Muiño

Highlighted Paper Differences in DNA Binding Specificity of Floral Homeotic Protein Complexes Predict Organ- Specific Target GenesCezary Smaczniak, Jose M. Muiño, Dijun Chen, Gerco C. Angenent, Kerstin Kaufmann

Current Position: Researcher at the Department of Biology, Humboldt University, Berlin.

Education: PhD in Computational Biology (Lleida University, Spain, 2009)

Non-scientific Interests: Storytelling, fantasy books/movies, hiking

I started my scientific career at Lleida University (Spain) with the naïve aim to pre-cisely characterize biology with mathematical models. Soon I realized how daunting this task was due to the limited knowledge on how these systems are regulated at the molecular level. Therefore, I decided to focus my interest on a particular set of regulators: MADS-domain transcription factors, and how they achieve their regu-latory function in a particular biological system: flower development. In this way, I could use my computational skills to start to understand how this regulators interact with the DNA (as described in this publication), the chromatin, and other proteins to achieve their function. Recently we began to characterize the variability of this regulatory system across plant species, hoping that one day we will be able not only to understand the mechanisms behind this regulation, but also to understand how the properties of these regulatory mechanisms evolve and associate with morpholog-ical evolution.

40

Qiong Nan

Highlighted Paper Plant Actin-Depolymerizing Factors Possess Opposing Biochemical Properties Arising from Key Amino Acid Changes throughout EvolutionQiong Nan, Dong Qian, Yue Niu, Yongxing He, Shaofei Tong, Zhimin Niu, Jianchao Ma, Yang Yang, Lizhe An, Dongshi Wan, Yun Xiang

Current Position: PhD Student at the School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, China

Education: B.S. (2011) in Biology, College of Bio-engineering and Biotechnology, Tianshui Normal University, China

Non-scientific Interests: Reading, playing football, and listening to music

I spent most of my childhood on farms, where I had ample opportunity to learn about various plants. While growing up, the wide variety of plants present in farms and other places created enough curiosity in my mind to lead me to choose Biology as my major at Tianshui Normal University. After earning my B.S., I had the op-portunity to join Dr. Xiang’s lab at Lanzhou University as a graduate student. I was accepted as a Ph.D. candidate under the guidance of Dr. Yun Xiang and Dr. Lizhe An, once I finished my Master’s course work. My research has focused on investigat-ing the functions of Actin-depolymerizing factors (ADFs) and other actin binding proteins in plants. When I joined the lab, Jingen Zhu, a graduate student in the lab, had found that the F-actin bundling activity of AtADF5 differed from that of other conserved ADFs. I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to investigate the func-tional evolution of ADF family members across various plant lineages. As reported in this paper, the evolution of these N-terminal extensions, arising from intron sliding events and several conserved mutations, have produced the diverse biochem-ical functions of plant ADFs from a putative ancestor. I hope the key findings of this project contribute to our understanding of ADFs and their co-evolution with actin.

41

Ido Nir

Highlighted Paper The Tomato DELLA Protein PROCERA Acts in Guard Cells to Promote Stomatal ClosureIdo Nir, Hagai Shohat, Irina Panizel, Neil E. Olszewski, Asaph Aharoni, David Weiss

Current Position: PhD Candidate in Plant Sciences at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel

Education: BSc and MSc (direct track to PhD) in Plant Sciences in The Hebrew University of Jerusa-lem, Rehovot, Israel

Non-scientific Interests: Hiking, reading, skiing, kayaking, music, and spending time outdoors with my family and my dogs

I grew-up in a Kibbutz, an agricultural-based community, spending most of my child-hood in nature surrounded by wild animals and plants. I have always been interested in plants and was curious about how they grow, flower and set fruit. I was also fascinated by the ways they interact with the environment. It was therefore a natural decision for me to study plant sciences. During my undergraduate studies, I was enthusiastic about plant genetics, molecular biology and physiology. My great interest in these fields spurred me to continue my studies toward a PhD degree. I joined Prof. David Weiss’s lab for my MSc, and later for my PhD research. This lab studies plant hormone signaling and responses using molecular biology, molecular genetics and physiological tools. During my PhD, I explored the effects of reduced GA activity on tomato plant responses to water deficit and the mechanisms behind them. The results show that the central tomato GA signaling suppressor, the DELLA protein PROCERA, increases the sensitivity of guard cells to ABA and promotes stomatal closure and plant tolerance to water deficit. I am now writing my PhD dissertation and have decided to continue my post-doctoral studies abroad.

42

Iwai Ohbayashi

Highlighted Paper Evidence for a Role of ANAC082 as a Ribosomal Stress Response Mediator Leading to Growth Defects and Developmental Alterations in ArabidopsisIwai Ohbayashi, Chung-Yi Lin, Naoki Shinohara, Yoko Matsumura, Yasunori Machida, Gorou Horiguchi, Hiro-kazu Tsukaya, Munetaka Sugiyama

Current Position: Research Fellow, FAFU-UCR Joint Center and Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, Haixia Insti-tute of Science and Technology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, China

Education: PhD (2011) Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Japan

Non-scientific Interests: Traveling, hiking, and watching baseball games

Plant cells have totipotency; plants can regenerate themselves from only one cell through the dedifferentiation and redifferentiation process. This plant-unique, mysterious potential fascinated me when I was an undergraduste student. In order to understand how plants express this potential, I started to study in Munetaka Sugiya-ma’s laboratory (the University of Tokyo) and was engaged in the molecular genetic research of the plant dedifferentiation process during my graduate school study. We found some of the Arabidopsis mutants that are defective in the dedifferentiation and/or cell proliferation are ribosome-related ones, and I tried to elucidate the rela-tionship between ribosome biogenesis and cell proliferation including dedifferenti-tion. I am currently working on cell proliferation control by the ribosomal/nucleolar stress in plant, rather than totipotency. I speculate that, upon ribosomal stresses, plants have evolved the plant-specific response pathway, different from p53 pathway in animals. I would like to go on researching this plant-specific pathway and clarify its molecular mechanism.

43

Eunsook Park

Highlighted Paper Spatiotemporal Monitoring of Pseudomonas syringae Effectors via Type III Secretion Using Split Fluorescent Protein FragmentsEunsook Park, Hye-Young Lee, Jongchan Woo, Doil Choi, Savithramma P. Dinesh-Kumar

Current Position: Associate Research Specialist, Department of Plant Biology and the Genome Center, University of California, Davis

Education: MS Biological sciences, Seoul National University; Ph.D. Plant Molecular Cell Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Non-scientific Interests: Playing with dogs, reading books (and comic books), watching anime, traveling the world, and (recently) drinking California wines

My research interest on plant organelles has grown in Dr. Andreas Nebenfuehr’s lab at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville during my Ph.D. I studied how the actomy-osin cytoskeleton coordinates intracellular organelle movements for proper growth and development of plants, using time-lapse image analyses with fluorescent-tagged organelles. I was fascinated by the spectacular movement of subcellular compart-ments, which are required for plant root hair growth. After graduating, I moved to Davis, California for postdoctoral training to define the inhibition mode of a new cytokinesis inhibitor, Endosidin 7, using intensive live cell imaging and immunolo-calization experiments with various fluorescent markers for endomembrane com-partments. In Dr. Dinesh-Kumar lab, I jumped in the project to show that protru-sions of chloroplasts, stromules, are one of the dynamic plant immune responses to effectors from microbial pathogens and they provide channels to transfer important signaling molecules from the chloroplast to the nucleus during plant immunity. As a cell biologist, I always seek modern technology to develop tools to visualize the responses of intracellular organelles of plant cells in response to fast-changing environmental cues. Consequently, I participated in developing a new biolumines-cence resonance energy transfer (BRET)-based synthetic sensor to monitor autoph-agy biogenesis in vivo and in real time. Recently, I developed an innovative tool to

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visualize effectors delivered from the bacterial pathogen, Pseudomonas, in organelles of the infected plant cells using a self-folding split Green fluorescent protein (GFP) system (in this issue of The Plant Cell). This system is a versatile tool to study how microbial pathogens facilitate effectors for engagement with host cells as well as how hosts utilize the function of their organelles for defending against pathogens. I will continue to improve the system to investigate dynamic subcellular localizations and functions of effectors from other pathogenic microbes in plant cells and to study the effector-triggered defense mechanisms regulated by subcellular organelles during the host-microbe interaction, as an independent researcher.

Eunsook Park continued from page 43

45

Hua Qi

Highlighted Paper TRAF-Family Proteins Regulate Autophagy Dynamics by Modulating AUTOPHAGY PROTEIN6 Stability in ArabidopsisHua Qi, Fan-Nv Xia, Li-Juan Xie, Lu-Jun Yu, Qin-Fang Chen, Xiao-Hong Zhuang, Qian Wang, Faqiang Li, Liwen Jiang, Qi Xie, Shi Xiao

Current Position: Graduate Student in the State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and the School of Life Science at Sun Yat-Sen University

Education: MSc in Plant Molecular Biology at Sun Yat-Sen University, P.R. China

Non-scientific Interests: Badminton and reading

When I was a new undergraduate student at the Department of Biological Sciences at Northern University for Nationalities, I took courses in Botany and Outside Prac-tice of Botany, which made me very interested in learning how plants survive under various stressful conditions. This encouraged me to study plants in my postgraduate studies with the goal of helping plants become more tolerant to adverse stresses. In September 2012, I joined Professor Shi Xiao’s lab at Sun Yat-Sen University as a PhD candidate and chose to work on plant autophagy, a protective mechanism that helps plants maintain cellular homeostasis and improves plant survival in response to envi-ronmental stresses. My major research interest is the identification of new proteins involved in the regulation of autophagy pathway using Arabidopsis as a model. For-tunately, I, together with my colleagues, found that two TRAF-domain-containing proteins, TRAF1a and TRAF1b, as described in this article, play an important role in autophagy regulation by modulating ATG6 stability. Given that the TRAF1 proteins may play diverse roles in plant development and stress responses in addition to functioning in autophagy, my next research aim is to further investigate the potential target proteins of TRAF1a and TRAF1b.

46

Dong Qian

Highlighted Paper Plant Actin-Depolymerizing Factors Possess Opposing Biochemical Properties Arising from Key Amino Acid Changes throughout EvolutionQiong Nan, Dong Qian, Yue Niu, Yongxing He, Shaofei Tong, Zhimin Niu, Jianchao Ma, Yang Yang, Lizhe An, Dongshi Wan, Yun Xiang

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, China

Education: BS (2009) in Biology, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, China; PhD (2016) in Plant Biology and

Non-scientific Interests: Reading, running, and playing table tennis

During my studies at Lanzhou University, I was fascinated to learn how plants make developmental decisions by perceiving and responding to environmental signaling. I was fortunate to begin my studies in plant science as an M.S. student under the guidance of Dr. Yun Xiang. After two years of my master course, I was honored to work with Dr. Yun Xiang and Dr. Lizhe An as a Ph.D. candidate. During my research, I worked on the molecular mechanisms underlying remodeling of the actin cytoskel-eton and the mechanisms of plant responses to abiotic stress through regulating and remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton. In due course, I developed a solid foundation in biological research through theoretical and practical training. At present, I am working as a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Dr. Yun Xiang. Here, we investigate the mechanisms of functional divergence among Actin-depolymeriz-ing factors (ADFs) and identify key sites associated with their diverse biochemical functions. We hope this work provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the evolution of ADF family members across plant lineages and will be valuable for researchers working on ADFs.

47

Marlies Riedlmeier

Highlighted Paper Monoterpenes Support Systemic Acquired Resistance within and between PlantsMarlies Riedlmeier, Andrea Ghirardo, Marion Wenig, Claudia Knappe, Kerstin Koch, Elisabeth Georgii, Sanjukta Dey, Jane E. Parker, Jörg-Peter Schnitzler, A. Corina Vlot

Current Position: Administration and Contract Man-agement, camLine GmbH Petershausen, Germany

Education: MSc Biology at the Technical University Munich, Germany; PhD at the Institute of Biochemical Plant Pathology, Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany

Non-scientific Interests: Gardening, horse riding, and my toddler

My interest for plant biology comes from my childhood. As a small child I spent a lot of time in our large vegetable garden with my mother, helping her to make stocks for the winter. This interest brought me to a Master`s degree study in biology at the Technical University of Munich. My PhD position at the Institute of Biochemical Plant Pathology at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, the German Research Center for En-vironmental Health, was a further step deeper into plant science. Safeguarding the ba-sic food supply to a continually growing world population is one of the future’s greatest challenges for the western industrial countries. Research in plant resistance was an opportunity for me to contribute to achieving this goal and work for a good cause. The phenomena of systemic acquired resistance, which the Vlot lab studies, has inspired me right from the beginning. Permanently switching on this particular type of plant defence mechanism could be central to reducing the amounts of pesticides used today. With Corina Vlot’s expertise in the field of systemic acquired resistance and Andrea Ghirardo’s wide-ranging experience in VOC detection, I was able to merge the best of these two research fields. For the first time we could show systemic acquired resistance between Arabidopsis plants resulting from volatile signaling molecules functioning as infochemicals. Beside the often used common biotechnological and genetic methods, technical skills and innovative ideas for the experimental set-ups were required during my project. Fascinating in the daily work with systemic acquired resistance is that the effects of systemic acquired resistance and of inter-plant communication on disease symptoms can be seen on the plants already with the naked eye.

48

Sarah Robinson

Highlighted Paper An Automated Confocal Micro-Extensometer Enables in Vivo Quantification of Mechanical Properties with Cellular ResolutionSarah Robinson, Michal Huflejt, Pierre Barbier de Reuille, Siobhan A. Braybrook, Martine Schorderet, Didier Rein-hardt, Cris Kuhlemeier

Current Position: Post-Doc, University of Bern

Education: PhD John Innes Centre, UK

Non-scientific Interests: Playing football, hiking, down-hill skiing

I am fascinated by the process of development. My PhD work focused on how devel-opmental patterning occurs in a growing tissue; this fueled my interest in the process of growth itself. I moved to The University of Bern in Switzerland to investigate growth from a mechanical point of view. Here I combined my new excitement for mechanics with my existing passion for time-lapse-microscopy to develop a new method of measuring mechanical properties while imaging them. I was fortunate to work with a great team of people who turned this vision into a reality. Using this method we were able to measure mechanical properties with cellular resolution. I will continue to use the method to investigate other questions related to plant devel-opment, and I hope other labs will also find the method useful.

49

Liang Rong

Highlighted Paper The Histone Chaperone NRP1 Interacts with WEREWOLF to Activate GLABRA2 in Arabidopsis Root Hair DevelopmentYan Zhu, Liang Rong, Qiang Luo, Baihui Wang, Nana Zhou, Yue Yang, Chi Zhang, Haiyang Feng, Lina Zheng, Wen-Hui Shen, Jinbiao Ma, Aiwu Dong

Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California

Education: PhD (2015) in Biochemistry and Molecu-lar Biology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, P. R. China

Non-scientific Interests: Basketball, table tennis, traveling, literature, and music

After I got my bachelor’s degree at University of Science and Technology in Beijing, I changed my major from mineral resources engineering to life sciences. I pursued my interest in biochemistry and molecular biology and got my master’s degree at Anhui Agricultural University in 2011. Then I continued to my Ph.D. study in Dr. Jinbiao Ma’s lab at Fudan University and my research area is X-ray crystallography. I collaborated with Dr. Yan Zhu in Dr. Aiwu Dong’s lab to examine AtNRP1 function in root hair development. I was attracted by the idea that a histone chaperone can interact with a transcription factor to promote gene expression. First, I expressed recombinant AtH2A/H2B, AtH3/H4, AtNRP1, and WER in E. coli. Then I resolved the crystal structure of AtNPR1, conducted biochemical assays, and tried to propose a model to explain the mechanism how AtNRP1/NRP2 regulate GL2 expression. This project gave me the opportunity to learn many techniques in biochemistry, molecular biology and structural biology. I started my postdoc research in school of pharmacy at the University of Southern California in 2015.

50

Michael Sandmann

Highlighted Paper Targeting of Arabidopsis thaliana KNL2 to CenTromeres Depends on the Conserved CENPC-k Motif in its C-TerminusMichael Sandmann, Paul Talbert, Dmitri Demidov, Markus Kuhlmann, Twan Rutten, Udo Conrad, Inna Lermontova

Current Position: PhD Student in the Research Group “Quantitative Genetics” of Prof. Dr. Jochen C. Reif (Department of Breeding Research) at the Leibniz Institute for of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK; Gatersleben, Germany). Supervisor: Dr. Inna Lermontova

Education: Diploma in Biochemistry at the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena (Germany) in 2013

Non-scientific Interests: Cycling and other sports, cooking with friends and enjoying good food, reading political articles (not mass media) and certain manga (Japanese comics)

Close to the end of my study of Biochemistry at the University of Jena (Germany, Thuringia) I enrolled in a Biotechnology course to learn more about biotechnolog-ical methods. I applied to the lab of Prof. Dr. Ingo Schubert and since then Dr. Inna Lermontova became my supervisor. I learnt in her lab various techniques including the Gateway cloning technology for my course and I was introduced to her topic: the identification and characterization of kinetochore proteins. I generated expression clones and expressed the kinetochore protein KNL2 of Arabidopsis in bacteria, back in 2012 when the function of this plant protein was not characterized. During my diploma thesis period I contributed to the initial and functional characterization of KNL2. For instance, I verified the localization of KNL2 at centromeres and including these findings our first KNL2 paper was published. However, a deeper analysis of important domains of KNL2 was not part of the first publication. After the diploma I continued my work together with Inna to that analysis in the frame of my PhD student project. We discovered that KNL2 targets the centromere by the CENPC-k motif, a domain that was not described before. Furthermore, KNL2 contains an un-specific DNA binding capability which also the maize kinetochore protein CENPC shows. Those findings are recently published in our second KNL2 paper.

51

Maximilian Schmidt

Highlighted Paper De Novo Assembly of a New Solanum pennellii Accession Using Nanopore SequencingMaximilian H.-W. Schmidt, Alexander Vogel, Alisandra K. Denton, Benjamin Istace, Alexandra Wormit, Henri van de Geest, Marie E. Bolger, Saleh Alseekh, Janina Maß, Christian Pfaff, Ulrich Schurr, Roger Chetelat, Florian Maumus, Jean-Marc Aury, Sergey Koren, Alisdair R. Fernie, Dani Zamir, Anthony M. Bolger, Björn Usadel

Current Position: PhD Student at RWTH Aachen Institute of Biology 1 in the Group of Prof. Usadel Working on Plant de novo Genome and Transcrip-tome Sequencing

Education: BSc (2012) in biotechnology at the University of Applied Science, Riesa; MSc (2014) in Molecular and Applied Biotechnology at RWTH Aachen University

Non-scientific Interests: Reading, working voluntarily in German Red Cross, gardening

I started working on plants during my master thesis on the identification of novel genes in Arabidopsis thaliana seed coat mucilage development. I performed this work in the group of Prof. Björn Usadel using standard molecular biology techniques like RT-PCR, molecular cloning, ion-exchange chromatography for monosacharide quantification and bright field microscopy. Working with this team further allowed me to gain experi-ence in bioinformatics and next generation sequencing when I started my PhD in 2014. I became involved in several de novo plant genome and transcriptome sequencing proj-ects and started working with Illumina PCR-based and PCR-free sequencing protocols as well as Nextera MatePair-sequencing and stranded RNA-seq. Experience with these methods and RNA and DNA-extraction from difficult plants enabled me to quickly adopt Nanopore sequencing when we started this in our lab in late 2015. As Nanopore sequencing improved I became impressed with our ability to sequence kilobase reads with real-time metrics. These long continuous reads made it possible to resolve the large repetitive regions of plant genomes, which could not be resolved with only short reads. Performing these bioinformatic analyses allowed me to see the strength of Nanopore sequencing in complement to the high read quality of short-read data coming from the Illumina platforms. I am excited to continue working in this field, particularly with such rapid development of powerful platforms for the analysis of biological systems.

52

Stefan Schmollinger

Highlighted Paper Bilin-Dependent Photoacclimation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtiiTyler M. Wittkopp, Stefan Schmollinger, Shai Saroussi, Wei Hu, Weiqing Zhang, Qiuling Fan, Sean D. Gallaher, Michael T. Leonard, Eric Soubeyrand, Gilles J. Basset, Sabeeha S. Merchant, Arthur R. Grossman, Deqiang Duanmu, J. Clark Lagarias

Current Position: Project Scientist, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, University of California, Los Angeles

Education: PhD Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam, and Molecular Biotechnology and Systems Biology Divi-sion, University of Kaiserslautern

Non-scientific Interests: Hiking, cycling, traveling, movies, and comedy

Since my diploma thesis, my scientific work has been centered around the accli-mation of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to different environmental challenges, including both the response to proteotoxic conditions such as elevated temperatures, high light intensities or exposure to reactive oxygen species, and the response to nutritional limitations, mainly for the macro element nitrogen, but also for micronutrients such as the transition metals. When I joined the Merchant lab at UCLA as a postdoctoral scientist, professor J. Clark Lagarias was spending his sabbatical with the group, and he sparked my interest in less extreme, but even more consequential, acclimation processes that cells undergo on a daily basis. This includes processes such as those resulting from different nutrient availabilities (including light) during the day and, especially, the essential role that light sensors play in that process. After he returned to UC Davis, we continued the collaboration on the role the bilin-based photoreceptor has during light acclimation, and I plan to continue that work and explore the different acclimation responses to environmental challenges that Chlamydomonas faces.

53

Rene Schneider

Highlighted Paper Two Complementary Mechanisms Underpin Cell Wall Patterning during Xylem Vessel DevelopmentRene Schneider, Lu Tang, Edwin R Lampugnani, Sarah Barkwill, Rahul Lathe, Yi Zhang, Heather E. McFarlane, Edouard Pesquet, Totte Niittyla, Shawn D. Mansfield, Yihua Zhou, Staffan Persson

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher and Lec-turer at the University of Melbourne, Australia

Education: Diploma (2008) Physics, Dresden University of Technology, Germany; PhD (2013) Bio-Physics, Dresden University of Technology, Germany

Non-scientific Interests: Bushwalking, camping, community-building, and just being active in general; together with my family, I especially love exploring our local neighborhood or the Australian country side, improving our garden and home, or simply enjoying a piece of cake with a decent flat-white

My research career began as a physics student in Prof Stefan Diez’s lab (2009) at the Max-Planck-Institute of Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, where I worked on single-molecule microscopy of motor proteins in-vitro. I was amazed by the vibrant athmosphere at this newly-founded institute that combined physics, micros-copy, and cell biology in a way that was about to change my future research direction. Thus, after my PhD (2013), I choose to apply my skills to a field that was not receiving as much attention as life sciences normally do: Plant Sciences. I joint Prof Staffan Persson’s lab at the Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam, Germany, where I worked on how plants design their cell walls acquiring a powerful in-vivo per-spective. I was so lucky to join his team at the University of Melbourne (2015), where I now begin to unravel the various intracellular processes that underlie cell wall produc-tion in plant cells. I received an Early Career Research grant (2016), in which I propose a novel system to study the role of microtubules and their associated proteins in the econimically important process of wood formation using in-vivo and in-vitro assays.

54

Jun Sung Seo

Highlighted Paper ELF18-INDUCED LONG NONCODING RNA Associ-ates with Mediator to Enhance Expression of Innate Immune Response Genes in ArabidopsisJun Sung Seo, Hai-Xi Sun, Bong Soo Park, Chung-Hao Huang, Shyi-Dong Yeh, Choonkyun Jung, Nam-Hai Chua

Current Position: Research Fellow in TEMASEK Life Science Lab (Chua Nam-Hai Lab), Singapore

Education: BS in Agricultural Chemistry and PhD in Agricultural Biotechnology at Seoul National Univer-sity, Korea

Non-scientific Interests: Swimming, watching movies, and photography

I started my research career at Seoul National University, Korea when I was under-graduate student. Our lab (Dr. Yang Do Choi) was interested in jasmonate signaling in Arabidopsis. During my Ph.D., I studied the promoters of Arabidopsis JMT (JA methyl transferase) and its Brassica homologue NTR1 to understand JMT function in jasmonate signaling. I found a novel cis-element responding to jasmonate in both genes’ promoters and also trans-acting factors. After finishing the Ph.D. course, I moved to Dr. Nam-Hai Chua’s lab at Rockefeller University and started studying the functions of lncRNAs in Arabidopsis. Dr. Chua’s lab screened the lncRNAs respond-ing to various treatments. I focused on ELENA1, one of the lncRNA responding to elf18, to characterize its function in plant immune response against pathogen attack. Last year, I moved to Dr. Nam-Hai Chua’s lab at TEMASEK Life Science Lab, Singa-pore. Now I am working with other ELENAs and further studying ELENA1.

55

Sara Simonini

Highlighted Paper Auxin-Induced Modulation of ETTIN Activity Orchestrates Gene Expression in ArabidopsisSara Simonini, Stefano Bencivenga, Martin Trick, Lars Østergaard

Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Applying Deep Learning to the Plant Transcriptome, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf

Education: BA (2010) in Molecular Biology, Colgate University, Hamilton; MSc (2015) and PhD (2015) in Plant Biochemistry, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf

Non-scientific Interests: Running, hiking, reading, puzzles, programming

During my bachelor I first learned about the brand new and exciting high-through-put technologies, which we now refer to as 2nd generation sequencing. Only a few years later in my PhD, earlier competitors had already largely given way to Illumina, and I had the opportunity to work on several plant transcriptomics projects. During this time I developed skills in both general programming and more specifically the analysis of 2nd generation sequencing data, from basic handling, to alignment, as-sembly, and statistics. These large scale studies allowed for a more holistic picture of e.g. plant development than had been previously possible. By the time I was nearing the end of my PhD the continued development of long-range sequencing technol-ogies such as jumping libraries and long-read sequencing was rapidly making se-quencing of larger plant genomes—not just transcriptomes—accessible to individual laboratories. For my first post doctoral position, I joined the Usadel lab at RWTH Aachen both to learn more on genomics and generally keep improving my bioinfor-matics skills. Working with the nanopore data was an exciting chance to bring a new technology into the field of plant genomics and the sheer length of reads obtained was both theoretically and practically valuable in resolving repetitive regions. With data production still outpacing data analysis, I’m excited to explore the use of deep learning in biological sequence analysis in my new position back at Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf.

56

Cezary Smaczniak

Highlighted Paper Differences in DNA Binding Specificity of Floral Homeotic Protein Complexes Predict Organ- Specific Target GenesCezary Smaczniak, Jose M. Muiño, Dijun Chen, Gerco C. Angenent, Kerstin Kaufmann

Current Position: Researcher at the Humboldt Uni-versität zu Berlin. Awardee of a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers

Education: MSc in Biotechnology (Jagiellonian University, Poland, 2007); PhD in Molecular Biology (Wageningen University, Netherlands, 2013)

Non-scientific Interests: Squash, hiking, languages

I first came to study protein-DNA interactions during my half-year stay at the Center for Molecular Biophysics in Orleans, France in 2007. It was a very stimulating expe-rience that orientated my future scientific interests. Soon after that I moved to the Netherlands and started working on MADS domain transcription factors in flower organ specification for my PhD. This protein family is truly fascinating because their members are involved in a variety of protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions. A huge diversity in interaction patterns, e.g. formation of homo- and heterodimers and tetramers as well as establishment of the DNA loop structures, could explain their vast variety of functions in plant development. A hallmark of our recent publi-cation is that DNA-binding specificities of different intra-family protein complexes are distinct to such a degree that they are able to distinguish between specific target genes. Also other recent reports suggest that the events of heteromerization should not be neglected in protein-DNA interactions studies. My current research focuss-es on how post-translational modifications impact the DNA-binding specificity of MADS-domain transcription factor complexes.

57

Josh Strable

Highlighted Paper Maize YABBY Genes drooping leaf1 and droop-ing leaf2 Regulate Plant ArchitectureJosh Strable, Jason G. Wallace, Erica Unger-Wallace, Sarah Briggs, Peter J. Bradbury, Edward S. Buckler, Erik Vollbrecht

Current Position: NSF-PRFB Postdoctoral Fellow, Plant Biology Section, Cornell University

Education: BS and MS in Biological Sciences at the University of Iowa; PhD in Plant Biology from Iowa State University

Non-scientific Interests: Conversation, travel, art, culture, poetry, vinyl

As a first-generation college graduate, my university studies and subsequent men-tors in plant biology were imperative in my formative years as a scientist. I studied at the University of Iowa, earning my B.S and later my M.S. biology where I worked on vegetative phase change in the lab of Erin Irish. Before pursuing my Ph.D. at Iowa State University, I had the opportunities to work with Mike Scanlon at Cornell University and Sara Patterson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a Ph.D. student with Erik Vollbrecht, I learned maize genetics and continued to expand my knowledge of plant development. Erik provided me the ultimate creative space to conduct my doctoral research, from which the work published herein derives. Our work on drooping leaf (drl) highlights the meaning behind “follow the phenotype”, as the drl phenotype appeared fortuitously in the field, with the original drl1 allele originating as a spontaneous mutation. By cloning and characterizing the maize drl genes, I feel we have made an important contribution to our understanding of the factors that shape plant architecture. I anticipate the data presented here will have the potential to assist ongoing breeding efforts to improve maize.

58

Yanhua Su

Highlighted Paper Phosphorylation of Histone H2A at Serine 95: A Plant-Specific Mark Involved in Flowering Time Regulation and H2A.Z DepositionYanhua Su, Shiliang Wang, Fei Zhang, Han Zheng, Yanan Liu, Tongtong Huang, Yong Ding

Current Position: PhD Student, School of Life Science, University of Science and Technology of China

Education: BS in Biotechnology at Shandong University, WeiHai

Non-scientific Interests: Badminton, mountain climbing, and reading

In Prof. Yong Ding’s lab in University of Science & Technology of China, we have been studying the functions of histone modfications in plant development and transcrip-tional regulation. I idetified several factors including MLK4, which are involved in histone modification and flowering time in the past four years of my PhD study. I will be engaged in how plant chromatin adapt to the new environment.

59

Lior Tal

Highlighted PaperCoordination of Meristem Doming and the Floral Transition by Late Termination, a Kelch Repeat ProteinLior Tal, Gilgi Friedlander, Netta Segal Gilboa, Tamar Unger, Shlomit Gilad, Yuval Eshed

Current Position: Postdoc in the Research Group of Prof. Yuval Eshed at the Plant and Environmental Sciences Department at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Education: BSc (2008) in Plant Sciences at the Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew university, Israel; MSc (2011) in Plant Genetics and PhD (2016) in Plant Developmental Genetics, at the Weizmann Institute of Science

Non-scientific Interests: Hiking, running, reading, and spending time at the dog park

As a third-generation farmer, I always felt like I was born with the love of plants. However I never saw myself as the type to wake up every day at dawn and work in the vineyards and orchards. During my undergraduate studies I learned that I am fascinat-ed by plant genetics and developmental programs. Since than I spent my time re-searching basic genetic pathways in crops such as wheat, maize, and tomato that none of my ancestors ever grew. During my PhD studies I investigated known and novel genetic pathways by which tomatoes regulate flowering. This work included classic and new mapping techniques to identified unknown regulators of plant floral transition. One of these regulation pathways, described in this paper, characterized a novel late flowering mutant while revisited a research field “neglected” for half a century by using molecular tools. We show that meristem doming towards flowering, a widespread and conserved plant developmental process, can be driven by expression of a floral antagonist. Furthermore, we characterize a new kelch repeat protein that may act in transcription repression of such antagonists during meristem vegetative development. I am now looking forwards to my next research project and also am excited about the future of plant genetics and the creative ways by which basic science will be integrated with applicable science to improve world food production.

60

Tracey Tenreira

Highlighted Paper A Specific Gibberellin 20-Oxidase Dictates the Flowering-Runnering Decision in Diploid StrawberryTracey Tenreira, Maria João Pimenta Lange, Theo Lange, Cécile Bres, Marc Labadie, Amparo Monfort, Michel Hernould, Christophe Rothan, Béatrice Denoyes

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Plant Sciences at Bern, Switzerland

Education: Master degree in Plant Biology and Biotechnologies, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France; PhD in the Joint Lab UMR1332 Fruit Biology and Pathology, National Research Institute of Agriculture, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

Non-scientific Interests: Sports, reading and painting

I have been passionate about research and Plant Biology since middle school. My different internships at Bordeaux in the National Research Institute of Agriculture and the National Center for Scientific Research (University of Bordeaux) confirmed this passion. After completing my Masters Degree, I obtained a personal grant for a PhD thesis and I chose to continue my work on woodland strawberry. I am very interested in plant genetics and the molecular basis of plant development, including why and how a plant develops. The identification of the RUNNERING gene and the better understanding of the trade-off between flowering and runnering processes appear to be essential, not only for producers but also to gain more insights into the mechanisms controlling axillary meristem fate. I was fortunate to work on a multi-disciplinary project and to work with outstanding researchers.

61

Franziska Trusch

Highlighted Paper The RxLR Motif of the Host Targeting Effector AVR3a of Phytophthora infestans Is Cleaved before SecretionStephan Wawra, Franziska Trusch, Anja Matena, Kostis Apostolakis, Uwe Linne, Igor Zhukov, Jan Stanek, Wiktor Koźmiński, Ian Davidson, Chris J Secombes, Peter Bayer, Pieter van West

Current Position: Research Fellow, Aberdeen Oomycete Laboratory, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen

Education: BSc (2009) and MSc (2011) in Medical Biology, Dr. rer. nat. in Structural and Medicinal Biochemistry (2014); University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

Non-scientific Interests: Gym, cooking, doing jigsaws, and my dog

Proteins are involved in every single process of life as we know it today. When doing my undergraduate studies, I discovered my passion for the structure of proteins and the relation to their functions. Hence, I did an internship in Prof. Peter Bayer’s lab in Essen-Duisburg in 2010, analysing the first NMR spectra of AVR3a, which is probably the best studied effector protein of the plant pathogenic oomycete Phytoph-thora infestans. During my PhD-studies, I focused on other projects to expand my knowledge of biophysical and biochemistry methods beyond NMR techniques. For my PostDoc, I wanted to lay the foundation for the rest of my career by finding a research field in which I not just only do basic research but also where the results can be further transferred to potential applications. Fortunately, a position became available towards the end of my PhD with Prof. Pieter van West at the University of Aberdeen, who is working on plant and animal pathogenic oomycetes that affect the agri- and aquaculture industries. The understanding of effector proteins that establish and promote the infection process on protein level became the main focus of my work as well as the identification of key processes and targets for the devel-opment of new control strategies for oomycetes. Now, 7 years later, with several steps further in my career, I am proud having been involved in the discovery of the cleavage of an RxLR effector from P. infestans and thereby reopen the discussion of effector translocation in oomycetes.

62

Marcel C. Van Verk

Highlighted Paper Architecture and Dynamics of the Jasmonic Acid Gene Regulatory NetworkRichard Hickman, Marcel C. Van Verk, Anja J.H. Van Dijken, Marciel Pereira Mendes, Irene A. Vroegop-Vos, Lotte Caarls, Merel Steenbergen, Ivo Van der Nagel, Gert Jan Wesselink, Aleksey Jironkin, Adam Talbot, Johanna Rhodes, Michel De Vries, Robert C. Schuurink, Katherine Denby, Corné M.J. Pieterse, Saskia C.M. Van Wees

Current Position: Team Leader Crop Data Science, Keygene, Wageningen, The Netherlands

Education: PhD in Plant Cell Physiology, Leiden University

Non-scientific Interests: Watching series/movies, traveling in nature, family time

During my PhD at Leiden University I worked on the regulation of plant hormonal signaling pathways and defended my thesis in 2010. During this period I worked on the side as a consultant for ExPlant technologies assembling a plant genome and transcriptome. After my PhD, I started a PostDoc also in Leiden where my work switched from solely wet lab to 50% lab and 50% bioinformatics, working on genome interrogation using artificial zinc-finger transcription factors. After one year I moved to the Plant-Microbe Interactions group at Utrecht University to do 100% bioin-formatics work on RNA-seq timeseries to elucidate the gene regulatory networks of defense signaling in Arabidopsis. Here I transitioned slowly to a staff position at the Bioinformatics department, where I have been working on a wide range of bioinformatics topics from gene regulation to assemblies and metagenomics. At the beginning of this year I started as a team leader crop data science at KeyGene, a crop innovation company.

63

Alexander Vogel

Highlighted Paper De Novo Assembly of a New Solanum pennellii Accession Using Nanopore SequencingMaximilian H.-W. Schmidt, Alexander Vogel, Alisandra K. Denton, Benjamin Istace, Alexandra Wormit, Henri van de Geest, Marie E. Bolger, Saleh Alseekh, Janina Maß, Christian Pfaff, Ulrich Schurr, Roger Chetelat, Florian Maumus, Jean-Marc Aury, Sergey Koren, Alisdair R. Fernie, Dani Zamir, Anthony M. Bolger, Björn Usadel

Current Position: PhD Candidate, Long-Read Sequencing for de novo Genome Assembly, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

Education: MSc (2014) in Applied, and Molecular Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen. Bsc (2011) in Bio- and Nanotechnology, University of Applied Sciences Southwestphalia, Iserlohn

Non-scientific Interests: Sports, photography, music

Given my background in Bio- and Nanotechnology and interest in electronic engineer-ing as well as computer science I naturally felt drawn towards nanopore sequencing when I first encountered the subject during an electronic engineering lecture. It took however until 2015 when I could get my hands on a MinION Sequencer. In the meantime, I found myself developing hardware and software solutions for bio reactor automation (BSc) and applying Illumina sequencing for the detection of structural variants in Arabidopsis thaliana (MSc). During my PhD I initially sought to apply a broad range of Illumina sequencing protocols ranging from paired-end to fosmid library sequencing for de novo genome assembly of bacterial genomes up to gigabase plant genomes. The successful establishment of nanopore sequencing made many of the often time-consuming and expensive protocols obsolete and proved itself remarkably valuable for initial bacterial and algae genome sequencing projects. Insights gathered from these initial projects combined with rapid technological improvements by Oxford Nanopore Technologies ultimately contributed to the successful sequencing and assembly of the gigabase plant genome of Solanum pennellii. Inspired by the associated opportunities and challenges I’m looking forward to further explore the potential of this exciting technology.

64

Jamie Waese

Highlighted Paper ePlant: Visualizing and Exploring Multiple Levels of Data for Hypothesis Generation in Plant BiologyJamie Waese, Jim Fan, Asher Pasha, Hans Yu, Geoffrey Fucile, Ruian Shi, Matthew Cumming, Lawrence A. Kelley, Michael J. Sternberg, Vivek Krishnakumar, Erik Ferlanti, Jason Miller, Chris Town, Wolfgang Stuerzlinger, Nicholas J. Provart

Current Position: Senior Manager, Data Visual-ization Lab, Department of Enterprise Advanced Analytics, TD Bank, Toronto, Canada

Education: MFA (1995) in Motion Picture Producing at University of Southern Cali-fornia; PhD (2017) in Data Visualization and User Experience Design at University of Toronto

Non-scientific Interests: Rock climbing, canoeing, guitar, being a dad

I began my career writing and producing educational television for children. I am probably the first person to be published in The Plant Cell who also has credits on The Disney Channel and Cartoon Network. I love telling stories with pictures, especially animation where every aspect of the production must be designed and created from scratch. There are surprising similarities between making a show that people want to watch and making a data visualization tool that people want to use. I was intrigued with Dr. Nicholas Provart’s collection of data visualization tools at the BAR (http://bar.utoronto.ca) and how they could help biology researchers unravel the mysteries of life. So, I switched from thinking about how to present information so it can be understood by five-year-olds to thinking about how to present infor-mation so it can be understood by researchers. I am now applying these skills to the financial industry, where I lead a data visualization lab at TD Bank.

65

Sheliang Wang

Highlighted Paper Polar Localization of the NIP5;1 Boric Acid Channel Is Maintained by Endocytosis and Facilitates Boron Transport in Arabidopsis RootsSheliang Wang, Akira Yoshinari, Tomoo Shimada, Ikuko Hara-Nishimura, Namiki Mitani-Ueno, Jian Feng Ma, Satoshi Naito, Junpei Takano

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the Labo-ratory of Crop Ecophysiology, Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka, Japan

Education: MS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Guizhou University, Guiyang, China (2007); PhD in Agrobiology at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan (2012)

Non-scientific Interests: Basketball, history, and sightseeing

I was born and grew up in Wuyuan, a small village in a scenic spot in Jiangxi prov-ince of China. I earned my bachelor’s degree at Jiangxi Agricultural University in 2007. Then I selected molecular biology as the master’s major at Guizhou University. I started my academic research with a functional analysis of a rice gene, EUI2, that is inolved in the elongation of the uppermost internode. Since October 2011, I received support from the Japanese government to begin my doctoral work at Hokkaido Uni-versity under the supervision of Dr. Junpei Takano, studying the trafficking and polar localization of the boric acid channel NIP5;1 in plant cells. I found that UGE4, an en-zyme required for UDP-D-galactose synthesis, is required for the organization of the trans-Golgi network and for post-Golgi trafficking of NIP5;1 and other membrane proteins. I earned my Ph.D. degree in September 2015 and continued to study polar localization of proteins, first at Hokkaido University and then at Osaka Prefecture University. I am very happy that these five long years of hard work will be described soon to readers of The Plant Cell. I am sincerely grateful to my supervisor and all collaborators who gave me professional advice and suggestions when I had trouble in my work. These studies enriched my scientific logic and techniques. I am very excited to continue my study on mineral nutrient uptake and transport in plants.

66

Stephan Wawra

Highlighted PaperThe RxLR Motif of the Host Targeting Effector AVR3a of Phytophthora infestans Is Cleaved Before SecretionStephan Wawra, Franziska Trusch, Anja Matena, Kostis Apostolakis, Uwe Linne, Igor Zhukov, Jan Stanek, Wiktor Koźmiński, Ian Davidson, Chris J. Secombes, Peter Bayer, Pieter van West

Current Position: Group Leader Protein Biochemis-try in the Group of Prof. Dr. Alga Zuccaro (CEPLAS, University of Cologne, Germany)

Education: Diploma (2002) and PhD (2007) in Biochemistry: Max-Planck Research Group for Enzymology of Protein Folding (Halle/Saale, Germany)

Non-scientific Interests: Hiking, climbing, scuba diving

During my Biochemistry studies, I became fascinated by the fact that even small protein modifications can have dramatic effects on protein structural dynamics that in turn can translate into distinct biological properties and functions. Thus, I decid-ed to learn more about these effects during my PhD analyzing the influence of single conformational switches within polyproline helices. Starting my Postdoc career in 2007, I moved on to work on mechanistical and biophysical aspects of effector protein function and host cell translocation in the Aberdeen Oomycete Laboratory. During this time it became clear from the work of several groups that a subgroup of effector proteins from plant pathogenic oomycetes, like P. infestans, carry a distinct signal within their primary sequence, the RxLR-motif, that targets these proteins into the cytosol of host cells under attack. However, how this is achieved and the role of the RxLR-motif for this process is still under debate. Over the last years several reports described a possible model that proposed a direct physical role for the RxLR-motif in the host cell translocation process. However, this model is not in agreement with all the present data found in the literature. Therefore, in order to provide the basis for an alternative model describing the function of the RxLR-motif we set out to perform a detailed biochemical analysis of secreted native AVR3a. This allowed us to formulate an alternative model that is in agreement with all the report-ed data so far and that is also accessible for verification

67

Jennifer Wisecaver

Highlighted Paper A Global Co-Expression Network Approach for Connecting Genes to Specialized Metabolic Pathways in PlantsJennifer H. Wisecaver, Alexander T. Borowsky, Vered Tzin, Georg Jander, Daniel J. Kliebenstein, Antonis Rokas

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University

Education: BS (2007) Biological Sciences, Humboldt State University; PhD (2012) Ecology and Evolution-ary Biology, University of Arizona

Non-scientific Interests: Spending time with family, friends, and my dogs; watching TV; reading; day hikes; car camping; national parks; and the Pacific Ocean

My research focuses on gene innovation—the origination of new genes in lineages through diverse mechanisms, such as gene duplication and horizontal gene transfer—as a process that facilitates the rapid evolution of novel traits. The traits that I focus on-specialized metabolic pathways-represent the business end of many ecological interactions. For example, in plants, many specialized pathways produce toxic com-pounds to ward off grazers and pathogens. Other examples come from marine algae, which I studied as a graduate student and which have specialized metabolic path-ways for acquiring limited nutrients in the oligotrophic waters of the open ocean. The diversity of specialized metabolic pathways is astounding, and with these myriad pathways comes myriad human applications: antibiotics, pesticides, dyes, et cetera. Yet, because of their fast-evolving nature, nearly all of these pathways are unresolved at the genetic level, hampering our ability to draw general conclusions about their evolution or practically apply them in medicine, agriculture, and other biotech-nologies. This methodological bottleneck drove me to develop a high-throughput approach (presented in this issue of The Plant Cell) to identify the genes that form specialized metabolic pathways using gene co-expression networks. I will be starting my own lab at Purdue University in the Fall (2017), where I will work to characterize new specialized pathways and understand how these pathways arise and diversify over time.

68

Tyler Wittkoppy

Highlighted Paper Bilin-Dependent Photoacclimation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtiiTyler M. Wittkopp, Stefan Schmollinger, Shai Saroussi, Wei Hu, Weiqing Zhang, Qiuling Fan, Sean D. Gallaher, Michael T. Leonard, Eric Soubeyrand, Gilles J. Basset, Sabeeha S. Merchant, Arthur R. Grossman, Deqiang Duanmu, J. Clark Lagarias

Current Position: Research Associate, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Education: BS Biology, University of Wisconsin- Madison; PhD Biology, Stanford University

Non-scientific Interests: Fishing, sports, entomology

During my Ph.D. program, I helped identifiy and characterize novel proteins in-volved in photosynthesis in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Many of the proteins I focused on belong to the “GreenCut” - an inventory of proteins that are conserved in green lineage organisms, but absent in non-photosynthetic (hetero-trophic) organisms. In the present studies, I sought to expand upon previous work showing that the GreenCut protein HMOX1 (a heme oxygenase) is required for pho-toautotrophic growth and greening in Chlamydomonas. Utilizing a combination of biophysics and biochemistry, I helped determine that an hmox1 mutant is primarily defective in the accumulation of Photosystem I and its associated light-harvesting antenna system, a phenotype that restricts photosynthesis and photoacclimation. My collaborators and I also found that the photosynthetic defects in hmox1 are rescued by both genetic and chemical complementation, the latter of which is specifically enhanced in blue light. Our findings suggest the existence of a novel photoreceptor in Chlamydomonas, which we call “chlorochrome” and hypothesize to have a critical role in the diurnal cycle.

69

Zhuo Yang

Highlighted Paper RNase H1 Cooperates with DNA Gyrases to Restrict R-Loops and Maintain Genome Integrity in Arabidopsis ChloroplastsZhuo Yang, Quancan Hou, Lingling Cheng, Wei Xu, Yantao Hong, Shuai Li, Qianwen Sun

Current Position: PhD Student, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University

Education: MS, Huazhong Agricultural University

Non-scientific Interests: Hiking, traveling and reading

I received my master degree in Huazhong Agricultural University. After then I moved to Dr. Qianwen Sun’s lab in Tsinghua University to obtain my PhD degree from 2015. My project focuses on R-loop functions in Arabidopsis chloroplasts. Recently I have already had revealed some factors that can affect R-loop levels in chloroplasts. I hope we can analyze these factors and illustrate the detailed regulato-ry mechanisms of R-loop functions in chloroplasts.

70

Zhiyang Zhai

Highlighted Paper Phosphorylation of WRINKLED1 by KIN10 Results in Its Proteasomal Degradation, Providing a Link between Energy Homeostasis and Lipid BiosynthesisZhiyang Zhai, Hui Liu, John Shanklin

Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Biology Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory

Education: PhD (2011), Crop Sciences and Plant Molecular Genetics, Cornell University

Non-scientific Interests: Traveling, local food, reading and watching news

With a love of plants and nature, I started my journey to be a plant biologist as a graduate student in Dr. Olena Vatamaniuk’s Lab at Cornell University. There I studied heavy metal ion transport and published my first Plant Cell paper. After I got my PhD, I became more and more interested in sustainable energy and biofuels. I was fortunate to get a postdoctoral position in the Biology Department at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, which has very strong programs researching plant lipids and cell wall polymers. I worked with Dr. Chang-cheng Xu for two years on a novel protein involved in lipid transport (second Plant Cell paper), and then started working with Dr. John Shanklin (corresponding author for the current work) on plant oil synthesis. By screening genes in tobacco leaves, I found that KIN10, a master sugar sensor, strongly represses WRI1, a master regula-tor of oil biosynthesis. Combining this insight with Shanklin’s expertise in protein biochemistry helped us establish, for the first time, this strong connection between sugar signaling and lipid biosynthesis at the molecular level.

71

Liyuan Zhang

Highlighted Paper Mutations in eIF5B Confer Thermosensitive and Pleiotropic Phenotypes via Translation Defects in Arabidopsis thalianaLiyuan Zhang, Xinye Liu, Kishor Gaikwad, Xiaoxia Kou, Fei Wang, Xuejun Tian, Mingming Xin, Zhongfu Ni, Qixin Sun, Huiru Peng, Elizabeth Vierling

Current Position: Postdoc, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Education: PhD, State Key Laboratory of Agrobio-technology, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University

Non-scientific Interests: Reading, watching movies, running, and cooking

I got my master and doctoral degrees in China Agricultural University. For two years in China Agricultural University, my research focus on the mechanism of heat-responsive gene TaMBF1c in wheat. Then I went to prof. Elizabeth Vierling’ lab for one years, and begain my research on eIF5B in Arabidopsis. When came back, I continue to do eIF5B project in prof. Qixin Sun & Huiru Peng’s lab, my research focuses on the translational control of eIF5B in normal and heat stress conditions. I am now working with mammalian cells to explore the roles of RNA granules in translational control.

72

Yan Zhu

Highlighted Paper The Histone Chaperone NRP1 Interacts With WEREWOLF to Activate GLABRA2 in Arabidopsis Root Hair DevelopmentYan Zhu, Liang Rong, Qiang Luo, Baihui Wang, Nana Zhou, Yue Yang, Chi Zhang, Haiyang Feng, Lina Zheng, Wen-Hui Shen, Jinbiao Ma, Aiwu Dong

Current Position: Associate Professor in State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Plant Biology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Education: Ph.D. (2006) in IBMP-CNRS, France

Non-scientific Interests: Walking and table tennis

My academic research started from the cDNA cloning of one rice histone chaper-one, OsNAP1, which is a conserved factor binding histones and facilitating their incorporation into nucleosomes. Since then, I have become interested in and focused on the machineries and mechanisms involved in the dynamic nucleosome assem-bly and disassembly in plants. I work on plant histone chaperones and chromatin remodeling factors, and characterize their roles in plant growth and development, in genome stability, and in the interplay with the environment. By using a wide range of techniques, we found that histone chaperone NRP1 specifically interacts with the transcription factor WER, mediates the downstream activation of GL2, and further affects cell fate determination in the root epidermis.