Kumari Billakurthi

University of Cambridge, Department of Plant Sciences

C4 plants possess specialized leaf anatomy, termed ‘Kranz’ anatomy. Enlarged bundle-sheath (BS) cells with numerous chloroplasts are two critical traits associated with the evolution of C4 leaf anatomy. Dr. Billakurthi’s present research is focused on dissecting the genetic regulators that specify C3 vs C4 BS anatomy using the monocot model plant Oryza sativa (Rice). Before joining the University of Cambridge, she completed her PhD at Heinrich Heine University, Germany. Her PhD thesis was about finding gene regulatory networks that determine C4 BS anatomy by forward genetic and reverse genetic approaches. 

Chiara Perico

University of Oxford, Department of Biology

Dr. Perico obtained her PhD from the University of Bristol (UK), working on the cytoskeletal factors driving plant organelle movement and positioning in Arabidopsis and tobacco. To unravel such mechanisms, she used a combination of cell biology, biochemistry and confocal microscopy techniques. She currently works as a post-doc in Prof Jane Langdale’s lab at the University of Oxford, where she is applying her cell biology and microscopy expertise to underpin the role of hormones in vein development. In particular, her research focuses on understanding the role of auxin on the venation patterning in leaves of C3 and C4 grasses, using Oryza sativa as a model C3 plant and Zea mays as representative of C4 species.

Sovanna Tan

University of Oxford, Department of Biology

Unlike the diverse reticulated vein networks that develop in the variably shaped leaves of eudicotyledonous plant species, monocotyledonous grass leaves are unified by a linear shape and a pattern of parallel longitudinal veins. However, two variants of the venation pattern exist the derived ‘C4’ pattern, in which pairs of veins can be separated across the mediolateral leaf axis by just four intervening cells, and the ancestral ‘C3’ pattern with more widely spaced veins. After a PhD and a 1-year of assistant lectureship working on the hormonal regulation of plant development at the University of Paris-Saclay (France), Dr. Tan joined the Jane Langdale lab to understand what mechanisms underpin this constrained pattern with a focus on the relationship between cell divisions and vein formation in developing grass leaves.