Gramene at ASPB Northeast Section 2023 Meeting, SUNY Old Westbury

Submitted by aolson on Tue, 05/02/2023 - 10:37

The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) hosted its 86th annual Northeastern section conference at SUNY Old Westbury from April 22-23, 2023.  The meeting covered the most recent developments in plant biology, and brought together over 60 leading plant scientists and researchers. The conference featured 22 talks, over 24 posters and over 40 abstracts.

Audrey Fahey, a research technician in Dr. Doreen Ware’s lab, presented a poster on the benefits of incorporating compounds into the DAP-seq protocol to have more soluble, non-degraded proteins. In addition, Janeen Braynen, a postdoc from the Ware lab, presented a talk on gene regulatory networks that govern nitrogen use efficiency in maize and sorghum. Scarlet Au, a college student working in the Ware lab, discussed her summer internship project on the environmental GWAS study in sorghum. 

Other plenary speakers included Dr. Rob Martienssen from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Dr. Michael Purugganan from New York University. Dr. Martienssen discussed recent work done by one of his former graduate students on pollen gene drive in maize-teosinte hybrids. Dr. Purugganan described work in his lab on environmental and human impacts on rice variation over time in Asia and parts of the Middle East. Each talk featured fascinating historical references from the field of plant biology.

Highlights of this symposium included a poster session with awards given for best undergraduate and graduate student posters and engaging talks on heavy metal use and tolerance in plants. 

 


Sam Pelletier and Rachel Spicer, Ph.D presenting “ Expression of the YUCCA family of auxin biosynthetic genes in leaves of hybrid poplar.” Photo credit: Janeen Braynen, PhD.

 


Alaa M. El-Minisy (winner of the best graduate student poster) presenting “Molecular and Biochemical Studies of the Interactions between Cucumber and Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) under Cadmium (Cd) stress.” Photo Credit: Janeen Braynen, Ph.D.

 


Alexander Heyl, Ph.D. from Adelphi University, listening to his undergraduate students, Sandra Pinto and Stephie Thomas, present their work “Investigating the Evolution of Cytokinin Signaling Using Streptophyte Algae.” Photo Credit: Janeen Braynen, PhD.

 


Sam Pelletier presenting her poster to Jiping Liu, PhD USDA-ARS. Photo credit: Janeen Braynen, PhD.

 


Audrey Fahey, research technician in the Ware Lab and ASPB ambassador, presenting a poster on “Expanding Capabilities of DAP-seq with Improved Protein Expression.” Photo Credit: Janeen Braynen, Ph.D.

 


ASPB President-elect Leeann E. Thornton, Ph.D. and Christos Noutsos (chair of ASPB Northeastern section) during the formal poster viewing and hospitality. Photo Credit: Janeen Braynen, Ph.D.

 


Scarlet Au, current URP student from the Ware Lab and now senior (Class of 2023) at Columbia University, presenting a poster on “Environmental Genome-Wide Association Study in Sorghum.” Photo Credit Janeen Braynen, Ph.D.