$1.1M grant supports Purdue researcher to study plant stress
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A Purdue University researcher has received a $1.1 million National Science Foundation grant to study how plants respond to environmental stress.
Gyeong Mee Yoon, an associate professor of botany and plant pathology, is researching how two different biochemical pathways, biosynthesis and signaling of the ethylene hormone play into how plants respond to stressors like drought, severe heat and cold. There may be a link between independent cellular signaling pathways of ethylene biosynthesis and autophagy, Purdue said.
“Plant hormones are genuinely important for plant growth and development, but also very critical for how plants respond to stress,” Yoon said in a news release. “We believe that the signaling and metabolic pathways are interconnected. They influence each other by crosstalk, thus regulating the overall plant’s response to the environment.”
The grant will both support her research as well as grow her lab’s outreach to undergraduates, high school students and the public. It will support an annual seven-month internship for a local high school student. The lab also sponsors “Hormones in Grocery Stores” at Purdue Spring Fest to teach people about how grouping various fruits and vegetables can reduce ethylene-induced food spoilage.
Yoon has previously brought students in through the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, the NSF-funded Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates and the Pre-College Molecular Agriculture Summer Institute.