Page 64 - PC2019 Program & Proceedings

PLANT CANADA 2019

PS11. Wednesday, July 10, afternoon session at 2:20 pm

Dr. Siobhan Brady

University of California-Davis, USA

Systems biology of root development

Abstract: The plant vascular system supports the transport of water and nutrients throughout the plant
body. Xylem cells contained within this tissue allow for long distance transport from the plant root to the
shoot. Although the majority of plant cells are totipotent, xylem cells are unusual in that they undergo terminal
differentiation. While the genes regulating this process are well characterized, much less is known regarding
the dynamic behavior underlying the transition to xylem cell differentiation.

I will highlight the use of high-throughput yeast one hybrid network mapping, automated phenotyping, mining
of publically available gene expression data and single cell sequencing approaches. Collectively, these
approaches have led to the identification of double the number of transcription factors and novel modes of
regulation involved in nitrogen metabolic regulation, and a bistable switch that underlies xylem cell
differentiation.

Nitrogen is essential for plant growth. Insufficient nitrogen leads to decreased agricultural yield while nitrogen
application from fertilizers results in increased plant productivity but can have a negative impact on the
environment. Changes in nitrogen availability are perceived by dual function nitrate transporters in the root
resulting in a signaling cascade and subsequent changes in gene expression. Despite the importance of
transcriptional regulation in this adaptive response, a minimal number of nitrogen metabolic transcriptional
regulators have been identified.

Bio:

Siobhan Brady received her PhD at the University of Toronto in 2005, and she was a Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University from 2005 – 2008. In 2009 she
began an Assistant Professor Position and became an Associate Professor in 2015 at the University of California,
Davis in the Department of Plant Biology and in the Genome Center. In 2016, she was named as a Howard
Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Research Scholar. Research in the Brady lab focuses on the global regulation of
gene expression and its contribution to root morphology and development in Arabidopsis thaliana, Solanum
species, Sorghum bicolor and maize.

Homepage: http://www-plb.ucdavis.edu/labs/brady/

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/siobhan-brady/33/b42/71a/

Twitter: @bradylabs
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