Dr. Lauren Erland University of British Columbia Phytohormones as mediators of plant climate change resilience Chemistry, University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, Syilx Okanagan Nation Territory
Climate change threatens an estimated 20 % of the world’s plant diversity. Canada, and particularly Canada’s arctic and alpine environments, are experiencing these changes at more than four times the global rate. Plant adaptations to climate change require endogenous systems to perceive environmental changes and respond by redirecting growth, detoxifying stress metabolites and stabilizing physiological processes. The indoleamines melatonin and serotonin are an unusual class of plant growth regulator which are known for having dual function: stress defense and morphogenesis. My research has shown that melatonin, serotonin and their metabolites have distinct responses and effects in response to environmental or developmental cues, that presence of novel conjugate or storage forms of melatonin and serotonin may have biological relevance, and that localization of melatonin and serotonin are important in determining their biological activity, particularly in response to thermal stress. This led to my current research interests in arctic and alpine plant species as changing temperatures are a hallmark of climate changes. While some species are highly adapted to specific environments, including extremes of temperature, others are capable of survival in these extremes and in more moderate climates. These generalist species from arctic and alpine environments are interesting models which I am studying to understand the role of phytohormone networks in determining plant climate change resilience. This research has implications for both understanding plant environmental stress responses, as well as, identifying novel roles of the indoleamines melatonin and serotonin in these processes. About Lauren Erland : Lauren Erland is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Susan Murch’s PlantSMART Lab at UBC Okanagan. She holds a BSc in Microbiology and an MSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UBC. Lauren completed her PhD in Dr. Praveen Saxena’s lab at the University of Guelph, where she focused on understanding the roles of the mammalian neurotransmitters melatonin and serotonin in plants. Her research uses interdisciplinary approaches such as plant tissue culture, metabolomics, analytical chemistry, ecological niche modelling, and quantum dot microscopy to study the role of plant growth regulators in plant perception and response to changes in their environment. Her current role is as part of a collaborative project which aims to bring Syilx traditional ecological knowledge together with Western Science to address community led questions. She is particularly interested in how plant signaling can be applied to understand and predict climate change resiliency of Native Canadian plant species in the Okanagan Valley and Canada’s Arctic (Inuit Nunangat). Comments are closed.
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