We’re taking time to get to know the members of the GSA’s Early Career Scientist Committees. Join us to learn more about our early career scientist advocates.

Divya Mishra
Career Development Subcommittee
National Institute of Plant Genome Research, India

Research Interest

I have always been deeply curious about various aspects of life. This curiosity has continued to drive me along my scientific journey. I am fascinated by the dynamic interplay among various signaling pathways under stressful conditions. My research interest involves unraveling the intricate molecular mechanisms behind plants’ responses to harsh environments. I aspire to significantly contribute to an in-depth understanding of plant stress biology to generate climate-resilient crops with better yields. Stress-resilient crops are more likely to adapt to climate change, decrease food security, and be farmed sustainably. Collaborating with the scientific community, I hope to minimize global challenges, including food security and sustainability.

As a PhD-trained scientist, you have many career options. What interests you the most?

I recall the beginning of my PhD journey, a time when alternative career paths were not widely explored or considered mainstream. Nevertheless, the landscape has evolved, and individuals now leverage their PhD training to embark on different career trajectories. It’s crucial to acquire transferable skills during the PhD, skills that guide researchers in defining their future paths. I think career options are subjective to each individual because everyone has a different personality and capabilities. It is not easy to navigate the scientific journey to both understand what exactly we want and find a path for it in a competitive world.

I feel immense satisfaction from conducting experiments in the lab, feeling almost therapeutic. Throughout the scientific journey, it has been clear to me that I am a lifelong researcher, whether in academia, industry, or even pursuing my start-up ideas. The exploration in science keeps me engaged. Every day brings something new, often pushing the boundaries of how experiments are approached and sometimes uncovering cool things about them.

Equally, I love effectively communicating and presenting science to a wider audience, as I aim to enhance its accessibility and broader impact.

In addition to your research, how do you want to advance the scientific enterprise?

I believe in effectively communicating science to audiences beyond my research arena to bridge the gap between scientists, policymakers, and the rest of the public. I value providing people with the overview of what we are doing in the lab. I enjoy spreading knowledge and resources among my peers, as well as younger generations. I strongly encourage thinking outside of the box. It is so important to develop a scientific mindset that helps younger generations create hypotheses about science and life in general. Incorporating a course within the PhD curriculum that involves effective writing, hypothesis testing, scientific illustration, and data representation would benefit their PhD work and overall scientific journey.

I want to mentor and support aspiring scientists through my experiences. We are often unaware of the career choices in science; therefore, we need a support group for sharing knowledge. By doing this, we can surely make a better scientific community.

Another goal is to make the research workplace more inclusive so that we get opinions from a more diverse scientific community. I always feel that individuals from different backgrounds and experiences come with unique problem-solving approaches that could lead to effective, meaningful solutions. Inclusivity might help to reduce bias and stereotyping towards specific individuals in a working team. An amalgamation of diversity in the scientific community enhances the research quality and contributes to the development of a better society as a whole.

As a leader within the Genetics Society of America, what do you hope to accomplish?

As a leader in GSA, my aspirations align with enhancing the professional development program of the Career Development Subcommittee. The ECLP holds significance both for my own professional growth and for the empowerment of other early career researchers. Therefore, I am committed to raising awareness about this wonderful program among peers.

My main objective is to provide resources on career paths and trajectories. These resources are made up of workshops and written materials where field experts shed light on their experiences and accomplishments. The workshops and seminars could provide a platform for researchers to communicate, network, and collaborate with field experts.

For broader reach, I am determined to enhance the visibility of the ECLP and various events of the GSA by reaching out to interested individuals who can benefit from seminars organized by the Career Development Subcommittee. By harnessing the power of social media platforms, I will make the information from seminars and workshops available for global access and engagement. Knowledge becomes more valuable when shared with different people. That’s why it is essential to make the information available to everyone.

Previous leadership experience:

• Early Career Representative, Education Committee in American Society of Plant Biologist (2023-present)
• Social Media Editor, Crop Science Journal (January 2023-June 2023)
• Spotlight Editor, Physiologia Plantarum (2022-2023)
• Assistant Feature Editor, Plant Physiology (2021-2023)

Jadson C. Santos (Jall)

Career Development Subcommittee

University of São Paulo

Research Interest

I have carried out research in various scientific areas—among them, human genetics, bioinformatics, structural biology of proteins, and molecular immunology. I’ve always been passionate about science, but the molecular world sparked my imagination and attracted me more than any other area.

Currently, as a third-year PhD student in genetics, I integrate computational and experimental methodologies to understand the impact of pathogenic mutations on the 3D structure of proteins important to the immune system. In parallel, as part of my MBA in project management, I conducted research on leadership and working in scientific teams to understand the main interpersonal challenges that those teams face in scientific projects.

As a PhD-trained scientist, you have many career options. What interests you the most?

As a scientist, my main interests are in transdisciplinary research, which integrates different areas of knowledge in the search for innovations and discoveries that can solve complex world challenges, such as biodiversity loss, species extinction, the climate crisis, education, water scarcity, and global health.

To this end, I find myself applying the transferable skills I’ve learned during my scientific journey—combined with the management and leadership skills I’ve gained over the past four years—to connect knowledge and people with a common purpose. More specifically, I’m interested in working in management positions of international scientific societies to increase the visibility of science and its social impact, as well as catalyze scientists’ potential to innovate and discover “new worlds” through well-designed and well-executed projects.

Additionally, I am deeply interested in work that involves the career development of scientists and early career professionals. Therefore, since 2020, I have been mentoring undergraduate and graduate students on skills and career development in my country. This activity is a service of great social value and brings me immense satisfaction in knowing that I am directly contributing to the lives and careers of other scientists along my journey.

As a project consultant and trainer in project management, leadership, and communication, I aim to develop professional activities for scientists and research groups around the world. I am deeply fascinated by the academic/scientific environment. In my career vision, I will have the opportunity to visit different research groups and universities around the world, witnessing firsthand the places where knowledge arises while contributing to this process throughout my career. In short, I see myself as a scientist working to create the project, management, and leadership structures that can catalyze the results of scientists and generate impact beyond universities and research institutes. Science plays a central role in the development of the world and being involved in this development inspires me to do my best daily.

In addition to your research, how do you want to advance the scientific enterprise?

The collaborative nature of my PhD research made it clear to me that we need to continuously improve our interpersonal and intercultural skills. In most scientific and technical fields, more than 90 percent of research project studies and publications are collaborative, with collaboration skills being a prerequisite for scientists. Also, the increasing internationalization of scientific research makes such skills crucial in this environment.

In recent years, I’ve focused on training that can enhance my management and leadership skills to make a solid contribution to science by helping scientists strengthen their collaborations. This investment in learning outside academia was crucial to my understanding of the complexity of the challenges we face not only as scientists but also as individuals with different cultures, values, and life/career goals.

My broader career goal is to contribute to the creation of a more collaborative and productive scientific culture. Such a challenge requires a broad integration between science and other areas of knowledge. Likewise, it is essential to understand the dynamics of research teams and groups—an understanding that is facilitated when we live in this scientific environment. For this reason, my scientific journey forms the basis of my career, as it allows me to deeply understand the day-to-day challenges that scientists face in their research. I am also developing my collaborative knowledge and skills by writing a newsletter on leadership and collaboration in the research environment (with 8,000 subscribers, mostly graduate students and postdocs) and managing a community of more than 900 scientists and professionals interested in collaboration in life sciences. Being part of GSA’s Early Career Leadership Program is therefore a great opportunity for fostering a collaborative environment and improving my skills in this area.

As a leader within the Genetics Society of America, what do you hope to accomplish?

Before officially joining the program, I was already collaborating with GSA. In 2021, I was an organizer and moderator of the Portuguese Multilingual Seminar Series, along with two other Brazilian partners. At another scientific event, I hosted a virtual room for Portuguese-speaking scientists to integrate them into the event via their native language, thereby strengthening networking.

As co-chair of the Career Development Subcommittee, I look forward to continuing to learn from my partners inside and outside the subcommittee. Additionally, I intend to bring to our projects a vision from beyond academia that improves existing processes to better support the professional development of the scientific community.

The events that I have already organized together with the subcommittee members have proven relevant to the scientific community, especially early career scientists. I often receive positive feedback from my professional connections, informing me how crucial our content was to their lives and careers. This positive impact on the community motivates me to continue improving my ability to create value through my activities at GSA.

In the long term, I intend to broaden my experience in management and leadership in a multicultural environment and establish long-lasting collaborations with my Early Career Leadership Program partners. These long-term collaborations will be essential, allowing me to continue learning, engaging with the GSA community, and generating value for early career scientists and society.

Previous leadership experience

• Founder and Mentor for Career Development, SSK Mentoring, 2020 – Present
• Community Manager, Leadership and Collaboration in Science (Virtual Community), 2021 – Present
• Advisor, Mendeley Community, 2020 – 2021
• Tutor, theVirtual University of São Paulo, 2019 – 2020
• Expert Volunteer, Science Buddies Ask an Expert Program, 2018 – 2019

You can contact Jadson C. Santos (Jall) on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter. You can find his newsletter on LinkedIn here.

We’re taking time to get to know the members of the GSA’s Early Career Scientist Committees. Join us to learn more about our early career scientist advocates.

Aishwarya Kothari

Community and Membership Engagement Subcommittee

Montana State University

Research interest

I am a fourth-year PhD student at Montana State University studying plant genetics. My interests are in the fields of epigenetics and molecular biology as I work toward improving human health and nutrition through increased access to quality food.

As a small step to this ambitious goal, I study the effects of heat stress in wheat at the molecular level. My current research objective is to use functional genomics—specifically ChIP, ATAC-Seq, and RNA-Seq—to identify molecular mechanisms of wheat grain development in response to heat stress. The complexity of the wheat genome makes it difficult to identify stress-tolerant genes and incorporate them into breeding. However, determining the effects of heat stress on transcriptome and chromatin accessibility in developing wheat spikes will potentially enhance cereal breeding. My research also involves the use of a class of plant growth regulators, brassinosteroids, to improve stress tolerance by altering plant response to stress during development. Brassinosteroids have a significant role in plant growth and development and in stress-response regulation. In the future, I want to study the effects of these plant hormones in conjunction with whole genome sequencing to better understand chromatin dynamics and the internal mechanisms of hormonal action in plant systems towards stress-tolerance.

As a PhD-trained scientist, you have many career options. What interests you the most?

After graduating, I am interested in doing research in industry—preferably related to sustainability and environmental effects. To protect our planet, we must take steps to slow down and control climate change.

I am specifically interested in sustainably growing crops with high nutritional quality that can cope with climate change without loss in yield. As the population increases, so does the demand for more food and better health; these increases then cause food prices to skyrocket, making healthy-eating and better-quality food very expensive.

My main goal is to provide research support to agriculture industries by establishing various methods to develop new, tolerant plant varieties without impacting the environment. Growing up in India, an agriculture-based country where nearly 50 percent of the farmers face issues pertaining to crop health and yield losses, greatly influenced this goal. The farmers struggle each year to get their crops to the market and suffer huge losses due to natural disasters. Additionally, the agriculture sector in India is not fully equipped with highly sophisticated techniques in molecular breeding, and I wish to fill that gap.

My undergraduate degree in biotechnology cultivated my passion for research. As an undergraduate student, I worked on diverse projects involving plant tissue culture, food quality, and genetics. Being a plant scientist will help me hone my skills in sophisticated molecular techniques and in visualizing agronomic characteristics of vigorous plants, which will guide me on proper management, breeding, and engineering practices.

In addition to your research, how do you want to advance the scientific enterprise?

I am a strong advocate for promoting science communication, especially to the general public. There have been many instances where information was poorly communicated and misconstrued, causing a lot of panic. Effectively sharing scientific findings with the public will promote scientific advancements at a faster pace. Additionally, instilling scientific knowledge in children at an early age may encourage them to pursue science in the future.

My personal ambition is to help international students and scientists. Being one myself, I know the hardships we must face to fit into the scientific community outside of our home countries. Also, not all countries have the resources required to enhance the abilities of their early career scientists, limiting their potential. Having forums like the Early Career Leadership Program makes it easier to connect with scientists all over the world and share our experiences. Making such forums more widespread and accessible to everyone is the next step.

Along with that, promoting mental well-being among students is one of my recent goals. Research has shown that almost 40 percent of graduate students deal with depression and anxiety. This was especially prevalent during the pandemic. The uncertainty during these times—mixed with the competitive nature of the scientific enterprise—takes a toll on the mental well-being of students, affecting their performance, academically and beyond. Therefore, supervisors, faculty, and higher management need to recognize their influence on the overall well-being of graduate students and postdocs. They can help enhance the graduate student experience by promoting a healthy work-life balance.

As a leader within the Genetics Society of America, what do you hope to accomplish?

I have wanted to engage in professional career development activities since I was an undergrad. Now as a graduate student, I feel strongly that we need to invest in career development workshops and events for early career scientists. Being an Early Career Leader at GSA will expand my network and knowledge; everything I learn here I can bring back to my institution and work toward implementing it. The demand for professional development workshops for scientists is increasing. Hence, it is imperative that we bring this much-needed content to early career scientists.

Ultimately, through my efforts to engage early career scientists in various opportunities of professional and personal development, I want to foster a healthy and inclusive culture of welfare in scientific communities.

Previous leadership experience

• Graduate Wellness Champion, Montana State University, 2020–2022
• International Peer Advisor, Montana State University, 2017–2018
• Student Engagement Global Ambassador, Montana State University, 2017–2018
• Orientation Leader, Montana State University, 2016–2018

The sex of many reptile species is set by temperature. New research reported in the journal GENETICS identifies the first gene associated with temperature-dependent sex determination in any reptile. Variation at this gene in snapping turtles contributes to geographic differences in the way sex ratio is influenced by temperature. Understanding the genetics of sex determination could help predict how reptiles will evolve in response to climate change.

In crocodiles, alligators, and certain lizard and turtle species, an embryo can become either a male or a female depending on the temperatures it experiences while in the egg. Rapid climate change may threaten the future of some of these species by skewing the sex ratio. For example, by some estimates temperature rises over the next century will cause painted turtles to produce only females. Such species may also evolve in response to climate change. Biologists are trying to understand how these animals will be affected by and adapt to rising global temperatures.

But little is known about how this temperature-dependent switch between ovaries and testes is regulated. To look for clues to the molecular mechanisms behind this process, study leader Turk Rhen (University of North Dakota) and his colleagues investigate how genes influence sex determination in common snapping turtles. The advantage of focusing on this rugged-looking North American native is that sex is determined in a brief five-day window during the 65-day egg incubation: the temperature-sensitive period. If the incubation temperature during the temperature-sensitive period is changed from a “male-producing temperature” (26.5°C or 79.7°F) to a “female-producing temperature” (31°C or 87.8°F), all the eggs will hatch into females.

Snapping turtle adult. Photo: Turk Rhen

In previous work, the team identified a gene—CIRBP—that is activated within 24 hours of such a temperature shift. Two days later, several genes known to be involved in ovary or testes development are either activated or repressed. The new study confirmed that CIRBP is expressed at the right time (very early in the temperature-sensitive period) and the right place (the gonads) to be involved in specifying sex.

To test whether this hypothesis is correct, the researchers investigated DNA sequence variation at the CIRBP gene, and whether it influenced the chances of an individual turtle becoming male or female.

They found that some of the turtles carried a slightly different version of CIRBP: at a specific position in the sequence, an “A” in the four-base DNA code was substituted with a “C”.

This change rendered the gene unresponsive to temperature: instead of being induced by the female-producing temperature, the “C” version of the gene remained at steady levels.

Individuals carrying this unresponsive “C” version were more likely than average to be male. This single-letter DNA difference between turtles could explain around a quarter of the genetic variability in sex determination temperatures, which suggests that the activation of CIRBP is a crucial event in specifying sex.

Remarkably, this CIRBP variant may partly explain a curious fact about snapping turtles: the sex ratio in populations from different latitudes responds differently to temperature. For example, if you collect eggs from snapping turtles in Minnesota and Louisiana and incubate them all at 27°C (80.6°F) in the lab, the eggs collected in the North will produce nearly all males, while those from the South will produce mostly females. This variation suggests subpopulations of the species have evolved and adapted to their local climate.

The team found that the “C” version of CIRBP was more common in turtles from northern Minnesota than those from 250 miles away in southern Minnesota, and it was not detected in a population from even further south, in Texas. Though this is only a small sample of locations, the trend is consistent with the sex determination pattern in each population: the “A” version (which makes turtles more likely to be female) was more common in populations that produce females at a lower temperature.

The protein encoded by the CIRBP gene (cold-inducible RNA-binding protein) is likely involved in sensing temperature and converting it into a developmental signal to trigger the formation of either testes or ovaries, says Rhen. Studies from other organisms suggest that this protein can regulate temperature-dependent processes by binding to the RNA “messages” produced by specific genes.

“CIRBP seems to play a crucial role in sex determination,” says Rhen. “The striking part is that we see a consistent association across multiple levels of biology: the variation at the DNA level influences the gene’s activation (expression into RNA messages), which is in turn correlated with whether an individual turtle becomes male or female. That association with sex holds whether we look at individuals or families, and we even see differences at the population level.”

But CIRBP is not the only gene important for specifying sex in snapping turtles, the data show. “There is a common misconception that there must be a single “magic bullet” gene that determines sex in response to temperature,” says Rhen. “Our data suggests that multiple temperature sensors control sex by acting together. We’re trying to identify the other components of this system and to determine how they interact to influence sex. Better understanding variation at these genes may one day allow us to predict how reptile species will evolve under a new climate regime.”

CITATION

A Novel Candidate Gene for Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination in the Common Snapping Turtle

Anthony L. Schroeder, Kelsey J. Metzger, Alexandra Miller, Turk Rhen

GENETICS May 1, 2016 vol. 203 no. 1 557-571; DOI:10.1534/genetics.115.182840

http://www.genetics.org/content/203/1/557

In 2009, after five years parching under the arid blue skies of Calcena in northeastern Spain, dozens of neat rows of maritime pine seedlings had grown unevenly. Some of the seedlings had died years ago, some were stunted but hanging on, while others grew tall and green.

The trees were not in their native soil. They had been grown from seeds collected at 19 sites around Spain, Portugal, France, and Morocco, and their growth was being monitored at a single site with an extreme climate to help predict the future of their species.

The experiment was designed to improve models that forecast where forests will grow as the southern European climate grows hotter and drier, and promises to help forestry managers choose tree stocks and decide where to focus reforestation efforts. In the March issue of GENETICS, Jaramillo-Correa et al. reported the results, identifying a handful of SNPs that can be used as predictors of maritime pine survival under different climatic conditions.

The maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Aiton) grows widely in southwestern Europe and parts of northern Africa. But the tree’s important economic value and ecological roles in the region may be at risk as the changing climate threatens the more vulnerable forests and the productivity of commercial plantations.

The species range is expected to move northward as the climate changes, says study leader Santiago González-Martínez, from the Forest Research Centre of Spain’s Institute for Agricultural Research (CIFOR-INIA). “But many populations in the Mediterranean region are already at risk, and we don’t necessarily know what genetic resources and adaptations we will lose if they disappear,” he says. “Another big problem for commercial plantations is that their tree stocks have been intensively bred for productivity, but not for resistance to drought. Forestry breeding cooperatives are very interested in introducing trees that are more resilient to climate change, with increased genetic diversity.”

Maritime pine common garden test site in Calcena, Spain. Image credit: Eduardo Notivol

Range-shift models are key tools for managing forests as the climate changes. These forecasts are based mainly on ecological and physiological data, however, and don’t take into account two major influences on a forest’s fate: genetics and evolution. Genetic differences between tree populations mean that forests vary in the degree to which they cope with changing conditions. Natural selection will also influence the prevalence of such genetic variants as the climate shifts.

Genetic effects can drastically change range-shift predictions, says González-Martínez. The maritime pine project sought to identify and quantify such effects in a way that could be readily incorporated into existing models.

To track down genetic variants that affect maritime pine fitness in different climate conditions, the team decided on a candidate gene approach, which is considerably faster and cheaper than surveying the large and complex maritime pine genome. Pine researchers from around the world pooled their expertise to yield a list of more than 300 SNPs in 200 candidate genes. “It was really a community effort, drawing on 15 years of research across many labs,” said González-Martínez.

From this candidate list, the team tested whether any of the SNPs were associated with climate variables across 36 natural populations, after correcting for geographic patterns in SNP frequency due to the different demographic histories at each site. Eighteen of the candidate SNPs showed significant associations with climate factors. These variants affected many different biological processes, including growth and response to heat stress.

The researchers then looked for evidence that these SNPs are important for fitness. They planted over 6,000 seedlings from 520 families and 19 locations together in the “common garden” in Calcena, where the climate falls at the extreme dry end of the species’ range. After five years, tree survival was significantly correlated with the frequency of SNP alleles predicted to be beneficial in the Calcena climate. In other words, the seedlings that were still thriving after five years in their new home tended to be the ones genetically well equipped to survive the harsh climate.

These results demonstrate the feasibility of this relatively fast approach of finding and confirming genetic variants associated with climate. Now that they have shown the method works, González-Martínez and his colleagues are expanding the project to cover more genes and more traits. “The single biggest climate change threat to pine forests is the increased frequency of wildfires, so we’re searching for variants that affect fire tolerance,” he says. They are also planting common gardens at many different locations—growing thousands more little seedlings whose fate will help geneticists predict the maritime pine’s future.

Read the press release: http://www.genetics-gsa.org/media/releases/GSA_PR_201503_pine.html

CITATION:

Jaramillo-Correa J.P., D. Grivet, C. Lepoittevin, F. Sebastiani, M. Heuertz, P. H. Garnier-Gere, R. Alia, C. Plomion, G. G. Vendramin & S. C. Gonzalez-Martinez & (2014). Molecular Proxies for Climate Maladaptation in a Long-Lived Tree (Pinus pinaster Aiton, Pinaceae), Genetics, 199 (3) 793-807. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1534/genetics.114.173252 
http://www.genetics.org/content/199/3/793.full