Plant Biology Graduate Student, Ahmet Bakirbas, has been selected as an ASPB Student Ambassador. ASPB Ambassadors are early career scientists (students and postdocs) and industry employees enlisted to communicate the mission and vision of the Society to other plant biologists and to the general public, to help ensure the ongoing vitality of the Society.  These young leaders engage their campus communities in outreach activities, represent ASPB at section conferences, and contribute articles to the ASPB News.  They also provide a voice for early career members in the Society, often lending input on key issues. Read more

A new study reported this week by evolutionary ecologist Lynn Adler at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Rebecca Irwin of North Carolina State University, with others, suggests that flower strips – rows of pollinator-friendly flowers planted with crops – offer benefits for common Eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) colony reproduction, but some plants do increase pathogen infection risk.

As Adler and colleagues point out, pollinator declines affect food security, and pollinators are threatened by such stressors as pathogens and inadequate food. Bumblebees feed on pollen and nectar they gather from such plants as sunflower and milkweed. But bumblebees are also likely to acquire a gut disease pathogen, Crithia bombi, from some of these plant species more than others, the authors note. Until now, the effect of plant species composition on bee disease was unknown, they add. Read more

The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) recently announced that Alice Cheung, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, will receive the 2020 Lawrence Bogorad Award for Excellence in Plant Biology Research, made every other year to “a plant scientist whose work both illuminates the present and suggests paths to enlighten the future.” Read more

Josh Coomey
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
12:00 PM
Zoom Web Link: https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/j/991379769
Thesis Title: Investigating the transcriptional regulation of secondary cell wall synthesis and thigmomorphogenesis in the model grass Brachypodium distachyon