BRAES Brown Bag Seminar: Dr. Lauren Erland

Presenter

Dr. Lauren Erland, CRC Tier II in Berry Horticulture and Assistant Professor of Agriculture, University of the Fraser Valley

Title

Phytohormones as mediators of plant resilience

Abstract

Climate change threatens an estimated 20% of the world’s plant diversity and will present new challenges in the cultivation, harvest and management of horticultural and wild crop species. Plant hormones or phytohormones are low-abundance, transient signalling molecules which enable plants to perceive and respond to internal and external stimuli. The indoleamines melatonin and serotonin are a relatively new class of PGR which have a dual function in mediating plant developmental and stress responses. We are leveraging liquid chromatography, high-resolution mass spectrometry-based quantitative and metabolomics methods for hormone and metabolite profiling to better understand the dynamics of established and emerging phytohormones dynamics in diverse research systems. These study systems include lab, agricultural and ecological systems from identification of ecological roles of cytokinins in Canadian arctic plants, to wildfire-derived karrikins in the BC interior, to phytohormone biomarkers of cranberry cultivar productivity in Northern and BC berries. Through this work, we are integrating Western and Indigenous Ways of knowing to support ecological resilience and food security. A better understanding of both established and novel phytohormone in plants can help us to better understand and predict future plant resilience to changing environments.

Biography

Dr. Lauren Erland is a Canada Research Chair Tier II in Berry Horticulture, Assistant Professor in the Agriculture Department at the University of the Fraser Valley and an Affiliate Assistant Professor, Chemistry at UBC Okanagan. She is Director of the Berry Environmental Resilience Research and Innovation (BERRI) Research Centre, which aims to enhance sustainability and resilience of berry horticultural systems in the Fraser Valley & beyond. Her work ranges from fundamental studies to understand plant perception of environmental stress and phytohormones to more applied work, including emerging threats to small fruits, cultivar assessment in response to environmental challenge and virus susceptibility and integration of Western and Indigenous knowledge systems to support food security and food sovereignty. When she is not in the lab, Dr. Erland can occasionally be found on Canadian small-ship Arctic cruise expeditions where she acts as Expedition Botanist and a Science Communicator.

Find out more about Dr. Erland’s work