Maize field in Missouri, 2018, Margot Bezrutczyk
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"Heritable...with its reams of field-trial data, represents a sort of Googlification of the breeding process, making it possible for breeders to search and explore the large number of possible genetic combinations for a given crop"
"Heritable...with its reams of field-trial data, represents a sort of Googlification of the breeding process, making it possible for breeders to search and explore the large number of possible genetic combinations for a given crop"
beneficial plant-microbe interactions
beneficial plant-microbe interactions
Illustration by Kent Leech
Our latest research from my team at JGI made the cover of Nature Plants!
We developed the first spatially-resolved single cell transcriptome of a plant-fungal interaction.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-024-01666-3
Here's an interview about my work at the Joint Genome Institute with science comedian Brian Malowe:
An interview with Menaka Willhelm about my single-cell genomics work, for the Genome Insider podcast:
sugar transport in maize
sugar transport in maize
Sugar is the currency of the biological world, and maize is grown primarily for the sugars (and other carbohydrates) in its kernels. We found evidence for a novel route that sugar takes on its way to the kernel from the leaf, and discovered several transport proteins necessary for this process.
Sugar is the currency of the biological world, and maize is grown primarily for the sugars (and other carbohydrates) in its kernels. We found evidence for a novel route that sugar takes on its way to the kernel from the leaf, and discovered several transport proteins necessary for this process.
Using single cell sequencing, we identified a subset of bundle sheath cells in the maize leaf:
We confirmed the localization key marker genes for this bundle sheath cell sub-type: ZmSWEET13a, SWEET13b, and SWEET13c. The mRNA transcripts from these genes were detected only in abaxial bundle sheath cells: likely a newly discovered subfunctionalization of this cell type.
We propose a novel route for sugar to enter phloem in the maize leaf minor veins (rank-2 intermediate veins), which are the most numerous and critical for sugar transport out of the leaf.
During this research we optimized a protocol for in situ hybridization in mature plant leaf tissue: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2021.100398
Using a multiplexed CRISPR-Cas9-mediated knockout strategy, we confirmed that the bidirectional sucrose transporters SWEET13a, SWEET13b, and SWEET13c are critical for phloem loading in maize:
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