PLB at Botany 2024
This year’s iteration of Botany, the annual conference hosted by the Botanical Society of America, kicked off on June 15, just ahead of a sweltering heat wave. As temperatures crested the 95-degree mark on Monday, June 17, attendees from MSU’s Plant Biology department could be found the air-conditioned halls of the DeVos Center in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Faculty from the department, including chairperson Andrea Case, David Lowry, Lars Brudvig and Kadeem Gilbert led talks across multiple colloquia sessions, spanning molecular ecology, ecosystem restoration, plant-microbe symbiosis and phylogenomics.
Postdoctoral researchers Lauren Stanley (Josephs Lab) and Cristal Lopez Gonzalez (Gilbert Lab) also presented on ongoing research projects: "Uncovering the Regulatory Mechanisms for a Genetic Switch Between Anthocyanin and Carotenoid Pigmentation in Monkeyflowers" & "Species-specific phyllosphere responses to external pH change", respectively.
Several PLB graduate students, including Riley Pizza (Brudvig Lab), Princess Abu (Case & Blackwood Labs), Sylvie Martin Eberhardt (Gilbert Lab), Sophie Buysse (Conner Lab), Madison Plunkert (Lowry Lab) and Vincent Pan (Gilbert Lab) presented on their research projects between a series of talks and the all-society poster session.
| Presenter | Presentation or Poster Title |
|---|---|
| Princess Abu | The role of the recruitment niche in the patterns of spatial segregation observed in sympatric Lobelia species. |
| Sylvie Martin-Eberhardt | Multiple signals increase the response of specific receivers in a carnivorous plant-prey interaction. |
| Sophie Buysse | Making Connections: the impact of modelling connections between science and society on scientific literacy |
| Madison Plunkert | Genetic basis of life history divergence on a microhabitat scale in the yellow monkeyflower |
| Vincent Pan | Mean Plant Toxicity Modulates the Effects of Defense Variability |
| Riley Pizza | Can't stand the heat? Get out of the prairie! Effects of seed provenancing strategies on plant community assembly under experimental warming |
Magie Williams and Claire Henley, research assistants from the Josephs lab, also presented a posters on their projects. Williams presented on "2+2 does equal 4: Investigating undescribed tetraploid hybrid and its diploid parents," while Henley discussed her project, titled “How des Capsella bursa-pastoris respond when dying of thirst: a leaf morphology tell all."
Jennifer Apland, the collections coordinator for the MSU Herbarium, attended the conference as well. “My intent was to network with other curators and collections managers about the ongoing research, outreach, and management of their collections,” Apland said. “Luckily, there were a ton of great sessions about utilizing herbaria in biodiversity research and development of herbarium-centered lessons.”
“I loved reconnecting with botanists from other institutions," she added. "This meant that I got to catch up with old friends, and meet with role models, and it feel so special knowing that these I get to interact with people that directly influenced me to pursue this career, and now I get to work in this field with them!”
Postdoctoral researchers Rachel Kerwin & Jaynee Hart from the Last Lab gave talks during the conference's phytochemical sessions. Kerwin presented on "A specialized metabolite biosynthetic gene cluster evolved through gene duplication and regulatory divergence in the Solanum." Hart presented on "Making plant specialized metabolism enzymes more efficient: a BAHD test case."
Matt Stata, a postdoctoral researcher from the Rhee Lab, presented a poster on his project, “Gene family evolution in a thermophilic C4 desert plant, Tidestromia oblongifolia.”
With 26 registered attendees joining the conference from Michigan State University, MSU was the most highly represented organization at the conference. Participants from both the College of Natural Science and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources presented wide-ranging research from across plant science programs at MSU.
The Department of Plant Biology is proud to provide travel support to our students through various awards, including the The Norman Good and Paul Taylor Awards, which provide travel support to our undergraduate and graduate students. All of our awards are made possible by generous donations to our endowments.
Full descriptions of research presentations and posters can be found here.
