Postdoc Appreciation Week at the University of Edinburgh

The co-occurrence of two or more stress factors in agricultural systems is common and, according to recent climate change models, the likelihood of plants encountering new or more severe combinations of abiotic stresses in the near future is expected to be higher than previously estimated. Studies have identified specific regulatory transcripts that are unique to specific stress combinations, highlighting the importance of studying abiotic stress combination in plants. In our study, we aimed to elucidate the impact of high light and heat stress combinations (HL+HS) on Arabidopsis thaliana.

Plant regeneration and cell culture are economically important processes but the molecular mechanisms governing plant cell culture remain poorly understood. Cell cultures derived from different tissues can display distinct phenotypes, indicating that cells do not fully de-differentiate but retain some properties from their progenitor tissue. To investigate this, we performed single cell RNA-sequencing experiments on Arabidopsis callus cultures. In this talk, I will present our recent insights that identify new cell types present in callus cultures which raise new questions about cell fates.