EESS talk on "How plants cope with salt stress: Subcellular insights from cryo-elemental imaging"
Event details
| Date | 06.05.2025 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker | Dr. Priya Ramakrishna, Laboratory of Biological Geochemistry, LGB |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract:
Sodium is an unusual nutrient for life. It is an essential element for animals, while most plants avoid it at all costs. Salinity stress (mainly sodium) causes significant loss to agricultural productivity globally, and while we understand sodium is toxic to plants, the consequences of this ionic toxicity within the cell remain poorly understood. A major reason for this is the lack of analytical capacity to quantify these elements with sufficient specificity and resolution in situ. Nanoscale Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (NanoSIMS) is an imaging technique that produces quantified isotopic and elemental maps and has often been used to understanding complex transport and metabolic processes at the tissue and cellular level. However, a big challenge has been to preserve the samples' natural state during analysis. The recent development of the CryoNanoSIMS at EPFL has enabled examination of vitrified biological samples, i.e., samples prepared for analysis without loss or significant displacement of cell constituents, including soluble compounds. In this seminar you will hear about the newly developed cryogenic workflow that has opened a new frontier for imaging biological tissue. I will present our recent findings using this novel approach to uncover previously undescribed subcellular coping strategies employed by salt-stressed plants, including in the crop species rice.
Biography:
Priya Ramakrishna is a plant biologist currently at the Laboratory of Biological Geochemistry. Her research interest lies in the `hidden-half` of the plant to understand how roots function at the cellular level to support whole-plant adaptation and survival in challenging environments. She is an incoming Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering and will establish the Plant Adaptation Laboratory (PAL) funded by a SNF Starting Grant at ENAC this summer. The lab will explore fine-tuned mechanisms employed by plants to adapt to abiotic stress such as salinity with the goal to link these cellular mechanisms to long-term plant performance and survival strategies under environmental stress.
Sodium is an unusual nutrient for life. It is an essential element for animals, while most plants avoid it at all costs. Salinity stress (mainly sodium) causes significant loss to agricultural productivity globally, and while we understand sodium is toxic to plants, the consequences of this ionic toxicity within the cell remain poorly understood. A major reason for this is the lack of analytical capacity to quantify these elements with sufficient specificity and resolution in situ. Nanoscale Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (NanoSIMS) is an imaging technique that produces quantified isotopic and elemental maps and has often been used to understanding complex transport and metabolic processes at the tissue and cellular level. However, a big challenge has been to preserve the samples' natural state during analysis. The recent development of the CryoNanoSIMS at EPFL has enabled examination of vitrified biological samples, i.e., samples prepared for analysis without loss or significant displacement of cell constituents, including soluble compounds. In this seminar you will hear about the newly developed cryogenic workflow that has opened a new frontier for imaging biological tissue. I will present our recent findings using this novel approach to uncover previously undescribed subcellular coping strategies employed by salt-stressed plants, including in the crop species rice.
Biography:
Priya Ramakrishna is a plant biologist currently at the Laboratory of Biological Geochemistry. Her research interest lies in the `hidden-half` of the plant to understand how roots function at the cellular level to support whole-plant adaptation and survival in challenging environments. She is an incoming Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering and will establish the Plant Adaptation Laboratory (PAL) funded by a SNF Starting Grant at ENAC this summer. The lab will explore fine-tuned mechanisms employed by plants to adapt to abiotic stress such as salinity with the goal to link these cellular mechanisms to long-term plant performance and survival strategies under environmental stress.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Anders Meibom, LGB