My PhD chapter got published!

My PhD dissertation chapter was just published in the American Journal of Botany! We figured out how columbine flower petals make different shapes, and the genetic processes responsible for them! In this video I take you behind the scenes and through all the ups and downs of a research project like this.
Here is the paper: bsapubs.online...
Thank you Svaha for sending me such a lovely sciencey dress to celebrate my paper! You can find apparel for every STEM occasion here: svahausa.com/
More about the Kramer Lab:
kramerlab.oeb....
More about the Ballerini Lab:
www.ballerinil...
Stay in touch with Science IRL:
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[@ScienceIRL]

Thank you for coming on this botanical adventure with me! Happy to answer any questions you have about the paper or just chat about how awesome columbine flowers are 🌸

[@Jonnycrs]

OK Since you offered. 1. The RNA gives you information about WHY the cells are elongated on the proximal end? Did I get that right? 2. You found the IBL1 gene from the RNA? 3. What are you doing with the Frozen Samples? I assume some magic chemistry machine allows you to study it. I'll watch the first paper video later.

[@ScienceIRL]

@@Jonnycrs Yay these are such great questions!! 1. Yes! You can analyze RNA sequencing data to see large trends, like proximal surface tissue in straight spurs had lots and lots of genes with high expression that were related to the hormone auxin that causes cell elongation. 2. Yes! You can also look at individual genes in RNA sequencing data. IBL1 has an interesting expression pattern in our RNA data, but we only really got excited about it when we combined the data from our first paper. In that paper, we discovered the general location of the gene responsible for spur curviness, but we weren't sure which gene it was exactly (the general location contained hundreds of genes). Once we had our RNA data, we could look at which genes with interesting expression were also in the general location for spur curviness. PLUS, IBL1 is involved in the auxin response, which we also knew from our RNA data was important. So it was the combo of all these things that got us excited about IBL1! Glad you plan to watch the first paper video, I think that will bring it all together for you. 3. Yes so once the tissue is frozen you use multiple magic chemistry machines to extract the RNA from the tissue and sequence it. But it doesn't actually look that exciting so I didn't show it on camera - just a lot of pipetting of clear liquids haha.

[@Jonnycrs]

@@ScienceIRL Cool. Hope to see more flower science videos. 👍 My knowledge about flower science has gone from 0 to 1%.

[@ScienceIRL]

@Muhtierter Mühlleimer the bibliography of my paper is 3 pages long in a tiny font haha so I think it would overwhelm the description - but the journal made the paper free to read so you can access it at the link in the description!

[@vocdin]

I love this! All investigations should be explained like this, not only to share information among peers, but to show non academic people what scientist do. Amazing work and going to be reading the paper, it may help my own undergraduate thesis! Thank you for sharing :)

[@dnm6790]

I am Brazilian researcher. I need to improve my English and so I have been learning it. Your videos with subtitles have been very helpful. Thank you so much and please keep it up.

[@Lou_Mansfield]

Congrats on publishing your PhD chapter!

[@EricBrennanOrganic]

This is brilliant. Your introduction is hilarious. It really made me smile and laugh. Very interesting research too. Nice job.

[@MarioDallaRiva]

Thanks for sharing your passion and knowledge! I’m all for plants that support our bees and hummingbird friends. Your research looks like painstaking work. Complimenti to you and your colleagues. Oh, and I noticed you look fab in short or long hair!

[@lazarus8453]

Damn this actualy very interesting . It's realy shame that you don't get the views you deserved . Nonetheless thanks for your amazing video i enjoyed watching it even though i have very few knowladge about flowers .

[@dhruvaditya88]

Such a cool video 📹 😎

[@stevesecosh8820]

This is so cool!!!

[@NoSTs123]

congrats

[@Jonnycrs]

I think I understood most of it. Maybe Anyways good work. Didn't know people were doing petal research. 👍

[@AdamMaryniuk]

What? I wanna study that! How'd that happen?