Sunshine Blogger Award Continued!

This post is a continuation of the questions I’ve received as part of the Sunshine Blog Award nomination! Below my answers to Kannan Raja’s questions. Thanks again for the nomination 🙂  Check out his blog by clicking the hyperlink ^.

Kannan’s questions:

1. How did you start blogging?

I got little inklings to put myself out there and change people’s perspective on plants. Plants get a bad rep for being ‘boring’ since they don’t move or communicate with you. I wanted to get people interested in them and see them in a better light. I had a great support system that encouraged me to not be shy and take the plunge! It’s been great so far, and I’ve gotten questions and feedback from people all over the world! I’m having a blast.

2. What’s the most difficult thing as a science blogger?

I’d say maintaining engagement is the most difficult, especially when you’re super busy with work. Sometimes I don’t post on Instagram for a few days (or publish a blog post for 2 months #sorry) because my schedule doesn’t allow it, but it’s all about balance. Like right now, I’ve decided to dedicate time to my scicomm this weekend as I’ve been neglecting it this past month, which I feel terrible about 😦 Sorry!

3. What’s your favourite quote?

Ernest Hemingway- There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.

4. What is one thing that you did or learned in 2018?

I learnt several lessons this year, but the most resounding one for me is ‘what’s meant to be will always find a way’.

5. Explain your line of work in a couple of sentences.

Tomato plants in the field are becoming increasingly exposed to soaring temperatures and longer periods of drought, which affects their productivity. I’m physiologically screening commonly-grown tomato varieties for tolerance to these stresses, combined.

6. If you were on The Graham Norton Show, what would be your Red Chair story?

I had to look this up on Google as I never heard of it! Now that I know what it is, I rather not say on social media haha.

7. I am a proud #DinoNerd. What is your favourite dinosaur?

Argentinosaurus!

8. What is the story behind your blog title?

My friend actually came up with the name for my blog when I was talking to him about my intentions of starting it. I owe him my blog basically haha. He blogs as well and has amazing health care storytelling pieces. Check him out on https://manuchimso12.wordpress.com ! He’s also one of my nominees!

9. What weird combinations of food do you really enjoy?

Condensed milk on ice- it’s a Caribbean thing.

10. What was the last photo you took?

My cat sitting in the yard.

11. Which character from a book would you love to be?

It’s really funny that all my favourite books have quite dark plots, and I really would not want to be those characters in real life haha.

So there you have it, my 11 questions! Now that I’ve done my part, it’s time for you to answer my 11 questions. Check out the first post for questions I’ve asked my 11 nominees!

K xx

Sunshine Blogger Award!

Welcome back one and all! I know I’ve been really MIA on here for a while now, but that’s because these past few months couldn’t be more hectic. I’m wrapping up my work here in Trinidad, and I’ve truly learnt that you can’t really be finished with science. There’s always a last minute experiment or writing piece to do, which is what I’m experiencing right now. However, I have some great ideas and drafts for articles stored up, so watch this space for more plant content 🙂

So I’m writing this as I’ve been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Twice! Special thanks to Kannan Raja and Emily Richardson, who are both awesome scicommers with really interesting blogs. Click on the hyperlinks to visit their sites!

The Sunshine Blogger Award is basically a friendly recognition scheme to highlight and promote amazing bloggers from all sorts of backgrounds. The rules are as follows!

1. Thank the blogger(s) who have nominated you and link back to their blog.

2. Answer the 11 questions put forth by the nominator.

3. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and ask them 11 new questions.

4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award in your post and/or on your blog.

With that being said, let’s delve into the questions asked by both Emily and Kannan! I’ve answered each batch of questions separately as this post would have been way too long! Kannan’s questions have been answered in the second post.

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Emily’s questions:

1. What do you love most about blogging?

I have to say I love the feedback I get about my posts. I get all tingly when people comment and say, ‘Wow! I didn’t know that! Thanks for sharing!’. It’s really satisfying for me when I know that I’ve educated people and gotten them interested in the topic. It’s what I set out to do with this blog in the first place, which was to educate and inform 🙂

2. What 5 things make you happiest?

• Sharing quality time with my family and fiancé. 
• My kitties 🙂
• Science! I love my job
• Tofu. Chinese Stir-fried tofu in garlic sauce to be exact!
• Traveling

3. What would you do with £1million?

This may sound boring but I will easily fund my own PhD. Funding is tough to come by for International Students especially, due to nationality restrictions. It’s probably the most major hurdle for me. If I wasn’t going down the academia route, I’ll probably buy a lavish house/car or something haha.

4. What’s your favourite song and why? 

God’s Plan- Drake. It brings out my inner thug.

5. Would you rather be transported 500 years in the past or 500 years into the future permanently?

Tough one! Probably 500 years into the past as we already knew what happened then, and I could use that information to survive more or less. No idea what the future holds!

6. What food would you be and why? 

Haha! hands down I will be stir-fired tofu in garlic sauce. No particular reason other than it’s the most amazing dish. Chewy on the outside but gooey and saucy on the inside ❤

7. What’s your favourite joke? 

Don’t really have a favourite joke, as I’m more into memes. I can read memes for hours!

8. Do you have a role model? 

I have several. From family, friends, mentors to previous/current supervisors. I take a little quality that I admire from them and try to use that in my own day-to-day living. 

9. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I love the UK as I lived there as an undergraduate student. I built a life for myself and enjoyed every single moment of it. Sure there’s Brexit happening which is upsetting but I left my heart in the UK and will gladly go back to live. 

10. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Currently enrolled in a PhD programme, or very close to graduating with one! Also taking ‘TheGreenScientist’ to new heights!

11. How do you want to be remembered? 

A genuine soul who tried to instil passion in others 🙂 

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Thanks for those fun questions Emily! Now I nominate 11 bloggers whose content I really enjoy reading (be sure to check them out on Instagram too!) :

manuchimso blog

sciencewithjenna

seeking science

scientist erica

science geekette

forestladysteph

she.go.say

thecatalystinme

motivelina

the busy woman and the stripy cat

be a scientist

 

And my questions are! (drum roll):

1. How did you get into Science? What was your inspiration/motivation?
2. What’s your work about and how does it affect society?
3. What made you get into science communication?
4. What’s the best thing about blogging/scicomm?
5. What’s the most difficult thing about blogging/scicomm?
6. What’s your long term goal for your scicomm?
7. Your remedy for a hard day in the lab/field/office?
8. Any hobbies?
9. Favourite animal as a pet? Why?
10. What’s the one thing you’d want to have with you, if you were stranded on a deserted island?
11. What’s one piece of advice you’d give your younger self?

So ladies and gent, I look forward to your answers to these questions, and pass along the sunshine blog award to other amazing bloggers! Let’s see who’s out there!

Until next time,

K xx

 

Meet the Scientist- Kathryn De Abreu — A scientist called Erica

Hi everyone! A few weeks ago I posted on instagram asking for scientists to get in touch if they would like to be interviewed as part of my “Meet the scientist” feature. I was flooded with messages from scientists from all over the world- and have a few amazing scientists lined up to share their […]

Hello everyone! I’m sorry for being so MIA these past few weeks. It’s been crazy hectic at work as we have commenced another tomato screening trial in the greenhouse (pop over to @the_green_scientist on Instagram for more behind the scenes action!), but I have some cool blog posts lined up so stay tuned!

I’m super excited to share some news with you guys 🙂 I’ve just been featured in the blog series ‘Meet The Scientist’ by ‘A Scientist called Erica’- Erica Hawkins, a Plant Science PhD student at John Innes Centre/ University of East Anglia in the UK. We chat about my job as a Plant Physiology research assistant and what it entails, what it’s like to be a scientist working in the Caribbean, and also some insight into my future career aspirations.

Please take a read, and also check out her Instagram @scientisterica for interesting insight into the life of a plant science researcher! Special thanks to Erica for featuring me on her series!

via Meet the Scientist- Kathryn De Abreu — A scientist called Erica

Welcome to the Real World

Welcome back! I do hope you enjoyed the last post introducing you to the cool side of science 😉 (not that science isn’t usually cool). We discussed growing tissue culture plants (TCPs) in the lab; those bonsai-looking plants that you can grow in an air-conditioned room under a fluorescent light bulb. What good would they really be, however, if they’re just sitting pretty on the shelf?  How does one take a TCP and transform it into a fully grown outdoor plant? Well look no further! TheGreenScientist is here to enlighten you! These tips don’t only apply to tissue culture; you can also transplant and harden seedlings from a greenhouse to your garden using some of these considerations.

TRANSPLANTING & HARDENING OFF 101

My pride and joy- cassava from tissue culture to the greenhouse

What is transplanting and hardening off?

Transplanting, in agriculture and gardening, is the process of moving plants from one environment to another. This usually involves moving a fully germinated plant to new  soil composition and location for more permanent means. This is a very important part of your plant’s life, especially if you’re raising it from seed to maturity where nutrient and soil requirements will change throughout, or in our case, transferring TCPs from the lab to the outdoors.

Hardening off is the process whereby plants are introduced to their new environment for specific lengths of time, gradually increasing the time they stay in their new environment. This is done to acclimate the plants to their permanent settings.        

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Before we get into the process of transplanting and hardening TCPs, we need to address some important (and pretty interesting) facts about these plants.

• TCPs barely, if ever, photosynthesise– Weird, I know. It baffles me as well. TCP  chloroplasts* are underdeveloped. They also have lowered cell and tissue development, and reduced stomatal* function compared to outdoor plants. This severely reduces the plant’s ability to photosynthesise.

*chloroplasts– cell structures that house chlorophyll

*stomata– tiny pores located on the underside of a leaf that facilitate gaseous exchange between the leaf and the outside, i.e. carbon dioxide (CO2) taken into leaf- oxygen (O2) released from leaf. CO2 is a core component of the photosynthetic process.

• TCPs use sucrose as an energy source– nutrient media used to grow TCPs contain sucrose which acts as an energy source for plant growth. Remember, these plants aren’t photosynthesising to create their own food to fulfil metabolic processes.
• TCPs use light for photomorphogenesis, not photosynthesis- As TCPs cannot photosynthesise, they use light for other light-dependent processes like leaf development and stem elongation.

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So now that we have those facts down, it’s time to get to business.

 TCPs undergo major changes after transplanting; during hardening off:

1. Their leaves become more hardy and begin to resemble their outdoor counterparts, instead of the thin, fragile things they once were.
2. Stomata (pores for gaseous exchange) become functional and allow CO2 to be assimilated into the leaf. Photosynthesis can then begin.
3. Chloroplasts and chlorophyll fully develop. Light energy can now be harvested for photosynthesis to occur efficiently.

 We must make the plants as comfortable as possible during transplanting and hardening off. We can break down the requirements into 3 sections:

1. Nutrients
2. Humidity
3. Temperature/ light

♦ NUTRIENTS

The plants won’t be living in nutrient media anymore. We will be transplanting them into potting mix. This mix is not soil. Soil is too harsh for your plantlets since its components are not suitable for their growth (e.g. nutrient overload can occur). Potting mix is Gerber baby food for plantlets. It contains adequate organic matter and nutrients for healthy plantlet growth, and retains enough water to sustain them with minimal disturbance. This also pertains to growing standard seedling types. 

 

Promix- a brand of potting mix

A light consistency when dry but holds water like a sponge

You must ensure all nutrient media is removed before transplanting to promix; fungi and bacteria will thrive on this media if it’s still attached to the plantlet, consuming it into oblivion (yes it’s that serious).

♦ HUMIDITY

Once in promix, the plantlets need a high humidity environment. It’s imperative to remember that TCPs are housed in a box where humidity is at 100%. In the lab, simply opening the box for a few minutes will cause the plants to wilt as they are not accustomed to the lab’s ambient conditions. We house newly transplanted plantlets in sealed containers that will mimic growth vessel humidity. As time goes on, we gradually remove the container lid to reduce the humidity level until the plantlets are fully acclimated to ambient conditions.

TC cassava housed in humidity chambers in a designated hardening area

(this is not required for hardening normal seedlings)

♦ TEMPERATURE/ LIGHT

TCPs are housed in a controlled environment with cool temperature. The temperature of the outside environment (in the tropics at least) is a far cry from this. To introduce your plants to this temperature change, one can place the plants in a cool, shaded area for a few hours, then bring them back into their original environment, gradually increasing the time they spend outdoors. It’s even better if you have a permanent hardening area that’s cool, shaded and sheltered from the elements, where they can acclimate to their new surroundings in peace (like in the photo above). This can also be done for normal seedlings when transferring them from a greenhouse or similar, to their permanent location outdoors.

Once they have established, you can move them to their permanent home, wherever that may be!

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So that’s all from me today. I hope you enjoyed this post! Now you officially know how artificial plants can be cultured in the lab and replanted into the outside world. If you have any questions or want me to cover specific content, do let me know in the contact form on this site, or on @the_green_scientist on Instagram!

Until next time,

K xx

Noah’s Ark…of Plants!

Can you recall watching a SciFi movie, where this mysterious lab is working on their next project for world domination, and as the camera scans the room you see little jars of plants on shelves? Well this isn’t unique to SciFi movies, this is a very real occurrence in laboratories, especially in Plant Biotechnology labs. Welcome to the world of plant tissue culture! This is next level plant propagation, where you don’t have to remember to water or fertilise your precious babies. ‘Set it and forget it’ as George Foreman used to say, although you shouldn’t completely forget about them..they’d die..as I shamefully experienced once upon a time.

Plant tissue culture refers to the process whereby plant cells, tissues or organs are maintained in artificial growth medium under sterile conditions. It can be quite a time-consuming, and skill-demanding process to initiate a culture and maintain it, but where would the fun be if it weren’t? Plant tissue culture has several applications including:

1. Research- numerous genetic clones of your plant of interest can be maintained, especially for plant genetic manipulation.
2. Environmental- e.g. conservation of an endemic or critically endangered species.
3. Commercial- e.g. maintaining food crop varieties (e.g. cassava, sweet potato, banana) for dissemination to farmers and the general public, especially as disease-free planting material.

This practice can be very beneficial to the agriculture sector. It allows us to preserve and maintain all sorts of crop varieties, protecting them from the diseases and pests of the outside world. If there were to be a fungal pathogen outbreak tomorrow that destroys 50% of cassava fields, rest assured that the collections you were maintaining in the lab can actually save the day, and the country at that! Think of it like a Noah’s Ark situation.

Noah’s Ark of plant cultures- many crop/ornamental plants are housed here, from sweet potato to Anthurium!

 

The biology behind tissue culture is that plant cells can be ‘totipotent’- this simply means that each cell carries all the genetic information needed to generate a whole new plant on its own. As a plant grows, cells divide to increase their population as part of the growth process. Before a cell divides to produce new cells, an exact copy of  its genome (which is the entire genetic component of the plant) is created, which will then be passed onto the new cells. Therefore, each cell can give rise to a new plant.

You can culture MANY plants, from pineapples to rose plants (disclaimer- some plants may be more difficult than others). There are just a few basic requirements:

1. Nutrient media :

This ‘jelly-like’ substance is a solid nutritive support for plant growth. It usually contains basic minerals, vitamins and sucrose to support healthy growth, however it can contain additional hormones for various purposes. Click the link if you’d like to know more about the media composition

Cassava plantlets growing in nutrient media

 

2. A sterile environment:

Plants aren’t the only organisms that benefit from the nutrient banquet; fungi and bacteria also want in on the feast. As plantlets are being maintained in these boxes , it’s important that no other organisms contaminate the culture, thus, a sterile environment is paramount. Once contaminated, the culture is rendered useless, so one must be vigilant to exclude the party-crashers. Alcohol and fire are usually involved..

I’m working in a laminar flow hood which blows sterile air onto my work surface. It prevents any pathogens from accessing my plants. I’m also under the tissue culture ‘spell’- very therapeutic.

 

3. Suitable growing conditions:

This is no ordinary room! It’s an environment-controlled room (ECR) with temperature, humidity, air flow and light intensity set to precise levels. This is to ensure all the plantlets are living comfortably. Too high a temperature can kill your cultures; too low a temperature can considerably slow plant growth, and if extreme, can also kill them. The lights are set on a timer to mimic night and day within the room. Plants need ‘shut eye’ too!

A sterile growth room.

So, you’re probably wondering how you can actually create the bonsai plants in the little plastic box, like the picture shows. The beauty of this procedure is that you can use several parts of the parent plant, referred to as explants, to create the culture. Some common explants include:

• Leaf
• Shoot
• Node/stem
• Root tip
• Anther/pollen

Remember cell totipotency? Well once these explants are placed on suitable media, they undergo several morphological changes to transform into a brand new plant, from their former state (e.g. leaf, stem) as they contain all the necessary genetic information. For more information on culture initiation using explants mentioned above, check out this great infographic on the Plantae community forum.

Next time, we will talking about introducing these plantlets into the ‘real world’ aka greenhouse or your own garden. N.B. it isn’t an easy process, and there’s lots to consider. It’s like dropping your kids off to school for the first time #worries

I hope you enjoyed this post! Any questions? Feel free to drop me a line on my Facebook page, WordPress contact form, or email.

I’d like to sincerely thank the Biotechnology Lab, Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, The University of the West Indies, for permission to photograph the facility and cultures. Check out the department website for further information here .

Hello World!

Greetings one and all! Thanks for stopping by TheGreenScientist blog. Happy to have you here!

So I’ve been having these little compulsions recently to open up and share my ramblings of life as a plant physiologist with the entire world! I’ve been working in Plant Physiology research at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Trinidad and Tobago for about 2 years now, and I’ve seen and done some pretty interesting things with plants..things that were so awe-inspiring to me that I had to share it with everyone. That fuzzy feeling you get when your seedlings have a growth spurt over the weekend, or when your lone Arabidopsis plant decides to bolt and flower on your birthday (May is the best month btw), is second to none 🙂

Working with plants (and all the trouble they put me through) made me appreciate the bearing they had on my own life, where their growth and fight for survival can be easily related to the ‘hustle’ we all go through on a daily basis.

Although I’ll be writing about plant science, I also want to show you that we can learn so much from plants because- to be fair- they’ve been around A LOT longer than we have, and basically have ‘life’ down-pat!

I’m also going to be sharing insights into life as a plant scientist, hoping to inspire the younger generations (not exclusively) to get involved in STEM, particularly agriculture, biodiversity conservation and biology, as it’s becoming increasingly evident that more human investment is needed in these areas, to protect and improve our environment while adjusting to the increasing demands of a booming global population.

Enjoy!!

-Kathryn x

“The plant never lapses into mere arid functionalism; it fashions and shapes according to logic and suitability, and with its primeval force compels everything to attain the highest artistic form”. – Karl Blossfeldt