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IPB represented at ICAR
Author: C van der Vyver
Published: 11/01/2016

Arabidopsis thaliana is a well-studied biological model; the first plant species of which the full genome was sequenced and used on a regular basis to determine gene function and unravel complex physiological pathways in plants. Working on Arabidopsis is a competitive research field where experimental planning and execution must be of a very high standard to allow publication of results in peer-reviewed international plant research journals. At the Institute for Plant Biotechnology, numerous postgraduate research projects include Arabidopsis work, and it is a constant challenge to keep up with the release of results from international plant science laboratories. As part of attempts to introduce our postgraduate students to cutting-edge plant biotechnology research, we expose our PhD students to international audiences where they can communicate and discuss their scientific findings.

For this purpose, Ms Bianke Loedolff recently attended the largest annual international plant research conference, the International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR 2015, Paris, France), where she presented part of her PhD work. Her abstract was chosen as one of only 15 (out of 580) for a flash poster presentation during the conference sessions. The work was titled A single gene (RS4, At4g01970) is responsible for seed specific-biosynthesis of the raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) raffinose and stachyose in Arabidopsis. Since the conference, Bianke has successfully completed her PhD on this topic and her degree was awarded at the graduations ceremony in December.