RESEARCH PROFILE

My research interest lie in development of plants that have altered abilities which will make them less damaging and more tolerant to the changing environment, while still meeting the needs of the worlds growing population. In order to achieve these goals we will need a much better understanding of the complex regulatory networks behind development and stress responses.

Most current methods are focusing on whole organs. However, it is becoming clear that cellular resolution is needed to better understand developmental and stress response regulatory networks. I am using methods such as laser capture micro-dissection and flow cytometry to obtain cell type specific samples during different conditions and/or at different time points and using the data that is produced by these methods to get a better, more specific, understanding of these networks. Most of my work has been done on Arabidopsis thaliana, but I am currently also working with the model legume Medicago truncatula. Using both of these plants we are trying to dissect the diverse developmental programmes in different tissues during lateral root and nodule development and see if there is a developmental link (co-option) between these two lateral root organs.

BACKGROUND

I obtained my PhD in 2006 from Aalborg University, Denmark, where I was working with Prof. Klaus D. Grasser on proteins and protein complexes involved in chromatin rearrangement and how these influence gene expression. This involved characterizing Arabidopsis thaliana mutants carrying insertions in the SSRP1 gene that encode a member of the FACS complex, which is involved in chromatin remodeling during transcription. In addition to this I also worked on analyzing the function, structure and transcriptional profile of this and other chromatin remodeling factors.

Following this I worked for four years as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Warwick, UK, working on the agron-omics project (Warwick page and external page), where my main focus has been on generating a collection of Arabidopsis lines expressing GUS and GFP in a cell type and stage specific manner and use these for flow cytometry to study cell type specific developmental and stress response regulatory networks.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Bearne, S.L., White, R.L., McDonnell, J.E., Bahrami, S. and Grønlund, J.(2001) 'Purification and characterization of β‐methylaspartase from Fusobacterium varium' Molecular And Cellular Biochemistry 221 (1-2), 117 - 126 [article]
• Massonnet, C., Vile, D., Fabre, J., Hannah, M.A., Caldana, C., Lisec, J., Beemster, G.T., Meyer, R.C., Messerli, G., Gronlund, J.T., Perkovic, J., Wigmore, E., May, S., Bevan, M.W., Meyer, C., Rubio‐Díaz, S., Weigel, D., Micol, J.L., Buchanan‐Wollaston, V., Fiorani, F., Walsh, S., Rinn, B., Gruissem, W., Hilson, P., Hennig, L., Willmitzer, L. and Granier, C.(2010) 'Probing the reproducibility of leaf growth and molecular phenotypes: a comparison of three Arabidopsis accessions cultivated in ten laboratories' Plant Physiology 152 (4), 2142 - 2157 (0032-0889) [article]
• Lolas, I., Himanen, K., Grønlund, J.T., Lynggaard, C., Huben, A., Melzer, M., Van Lijsebettens, M. and Grasser, K.D.(2010) 'The transcript elongation factor FACT affects Arabidopsis vegetative and reproductive development and genetically interacts with HUB1/2' Plant Journal, The 61 (4), 686 - 697 (0960-7412) [article]
• Grønlund, J.T., Stemmer, C., Lichota, J., Merkle, T. and Grasser, K.D.(2007) 'Functionality of the β/six Site-Specific Recombination System in Tobacco and Arabidopsis: A Novel Tool for Genetic Engineering of Plant Genomes' Plant Molecular Biology 63 (4), 545 - 556 (0167-4412) [article]
• Launholt, D., Grønlund, J.T., Nielsen, H.K. and Grasser, K.D.(2007) 'Overlapping expression patterns among the genes encoding Arabidopsis chromosomal high mobility group (HMG) proteins' FEBS Letters 581 (6), 1114 - 1118 (0014-5793) [article]

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