UPSC Monday Seminarseries 2025

9:30 Shruti Choudhary

Title: Sneak peek into transcriptional responses to nitrate with time in developing xylem of hybrid aspen

Supervisor: Hannele Tuominen


Place: Lilla hörsalen KB.E3.01
Time: 9:30-10:00

Contact: Thomas Dobrenel, Anne Honsel

Contact: Stefan Jansson

Docent lecture

11:00: Peter Marhavý (biology)
Title: How Plants Roots Sense and Respond to Damage

Please find more information on the SLU homepage:
https://www.slu.se/en/ew-calendar/2025/5/docent-lectures-s-faculty/

Summary:
https://www.slu.se/globalassets/mw/riktade/fakulteter/s/docentforelasningar/docent-lecture-peter-marhavy.pdf

The lectures are given in PO Bäckström's hall in Umeå with the opportunity to participate via Zoom (the link will be available soon here and on the SLU homepage).

Docent lecture

09:30: Peter Kindgren (biology)
Title: How do plants use their DNA blueprint?

Please find more information on the SLU homepage:
https://www.slu.se/en/ew-calendar/2025/5/docent-lectures-s-faculty/

Summary:
https://www.slu.se/globalassets/mw/riktade/fakulteter/s/docentforelasningar/docent-lecture-peter-kindgren.pdf

The lectures are given in PO Bäckström's hall in Umeå with the opportunity to participate via Zoom (the link will be available soon here and on the SLU homepage).

UPSC Monday Seminarseries 2025


9:30 Madhusree Mitra

Title: We Chased γ-Ester Linkages and Found Lipids Instead!

Supervisor: Ewa Mellerowicz


Place: Lilla hörsalen KB.E3.01
Time: 9:30-10:00

Contact: Thomas Dobrenel, Anne Honsel

UPSC Seminar

Juan Alonso Serra

Center of Excellence in Tree Biology, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences University of Helsinki, Finland

Title: On growth and flow: hydraulic control of above ground meristems

Host: Ove Nilsson

UPSC Seminar

Mingyuan Zhu

Postdoc Associate, Benfey Lab, Duke University, Durham, USA

Title: Single-cell insights into root adaptation to soil compaction

Host: Stéphanie Robert

Abstract

Soil compaction represents a major challenge to modern agriculture. One major problem caused by soil compaction is that it exerts water stress on roots as moisture release is reduced from the smaller soil pores. Despite its agronomic importance, how roots respond to compacted soil conditions at the cellular level remains unclear. Here, we pioneered the use of single-cell and spatial transcriptomics on rice roots grown in soils to delve into the cell-level mechanisms governing root responses to soil compaction. Through differential expression analysis comparing non-compacted and compacted soil-based single-cell transcriptomic data, we identified a significant up-regulation in the expression of genes responsible for water impermeable barrier formation in the outer root tissues (Exodermis). This gene up-regulation was induced by an enhanced biosynthesis of plant hormone, abscisic acid (ABA) and its release from the inner tissues (Phloem). The role of ABA in responses to soil compaction was further highlighted by the suppression of barrier formation in the exodermis in ABA-deficient rice mutants. In summary, our single cell resolution study revealed how root tissues coordinate to facilitate the retention of water in root tips during soil compaction stress.

https://mingyuanzhu.com/

Organisers: Johannes Hanson & Totte Niittylä

Seminar series "Outside of Academia"

Title: Working for AFRY

Speaker: Greta Nilén

Do you want to know which career paths are waiting for you outside of academia? Then listen to Greta Nilén from AFRY.

Greta Nilén is working as an environmental consultant at AFRY. Greta's background is in biology with a focus on environmental toxicology. Before leaving academia, Greta finished her PhD at Örebro University with a focus on the risks associated with combinations of chemicals and to identify the mechanisms behind the toxicity. Now she works at AFRY, an engineering and consulting company operating across the globe.

In the food and life science department, AFRY works closely together with its clients and focuses on the development and automation of production lines, the development of medical devices and the support of the clients R&D department.

You will have the opportunity to ask questions after the presentation.

 

Contact:

For questions, please contact the organisers Laura Tünnermann (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Tinkara Bizjak (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Organisers: Johannes Hanson & Totte Niittylä

UPSC Seminar

Leonard Blaschek

Copenhagen Plant Science Center (CPSC), Department of Plant & Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen

Title: Redundancy and Specificity in Wood Formation

Host: Ove Nilsson

Are you new at UPSC?

We invite every newcomer at UPSC to participate in the Welcome Meeting. This meeting will be held twice per semester, four times per year and gives you important information about UPSC, how it is organised, who are your contact persons and will help you to find your way around at UPSC.

Please make sure to attend at least one meeting after your arrival at UPSC. We will serve fika for everyone participating.

We are looking forward to meeting you!

Johannes Hanson (Head of Department, UMU), Totte Niittylä (Head of Department, SLU), Ove Nilsson (Director of UPSC)

UPSC Cutting-Edge Seminar

Katharina Markmann
University of Würzburg, Germany

Title: Systemic control of and root architecture and symbiotic competence through mobile miRNAs

Host: Stephan Wenkel


Abstract:
Authors: Daniela Tsikou, Zhe Yan, Moritz Sexauer, Hemal Bhasin & Katharina Markmann

Legumes balance symbiotic interactions with nitrogen-fixing rhizobial bacteria via a systemic feedback system tightly controlling rates of bacterial infection and nodulation events. This host regulatory system, termed autoregulation of nodulation (AON), prevents nutritional misbalances and is key to maintaining the association at a mutualistic state. We identified a riboregulator, the micro RNA miR2111, that undergoes shoot-to-root translocation to control infection (1) through specific post-transcriptional regulation of the Kelch-repeat F-box gene TOO MUCH LOVE (TML), a root-acting repressor of infection and nodulation (2). Our results reveal miR2111 as a key systemic activator of symbiosis that maintains a susceptible default status in noninfected hosts. The regulon miR2111-TML is conserved across dicot land plant lineages, including the asymbiotic ruderal Arabidopsis thaliana. Plants adapt their root system architecure to soil nitrogen availability in a process called foraging. Our data suggest that apart from its role in symbiosis control, miR2111 acts as a mobile shoot signal translocating to the root in a nitrogen homeostasis-dependent manner to control lateral root formation (3). Comparative investigations in the model legume Lotus japonicus and Arabidopsis thaliana identify this regulon as an essential, evolutionarily stable factor in shoot dependent adaptation of root organ formation in response to nitrate availability in plants of divergent lifestyles (3).

(1) Tsikou et al. (2018) Science 362: 233-236
(2) Takahara et al. (2013) Plant & Cell Physiology 54: 433-447
(3) Sexauer et al. (2023) Nature Communications 14: 8083

UPSC Monday Seminarseries 2025

9:00 Abu Imran Baba

Title: Rhamnogalacturonan-II dimerization deficiency impairs the coordination between growth and adhesion maintenance in plants

Supervisor: Stéphane Verger

9:30 Manvi Sharma

Title: Cell type specific profiling of Arabidopsis root under temperature stress

Supervisor: Petra Marhava


Place: Lilla hörsalen KB.E3.01
Time: 9:00-10:00

Contact: Thomas Dobrenel, Anne Honsel

Master thesis presentation 2025

09:00 Charikleia Nikolaou

Title: Regulation of root system architecture by GLN and plant hormones

Supervisor: Karin Ljung

10:00 Lucija Karina Berzina

Title: Interannual genome-wide association study of annual ring development in Norway spruce (Picea abies)

Supervisor: Rosario Garcia-Gil

Location: Lilla Hörsalen

Link to map

Master thesis presentation 2025

10:00 Franziska Brunozzi

Title: Analyzing carbon fluxes in aspen

Supervisor: Totte Niittylä

11:00 Johan Axel Samuelsson

Title: Upscaling a photosynthetic process for the production of isoprene as a green jet-fuel precursor

Supervisor team: Laszlo Bako at UPSC and Charilaos Xiros at RISE-Processum

Location: KB.F3.01 Stora Fokusrummet

Link to map