Jane Knerova
Profile
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Time Zone(GMT +/- 0) Greenwich Mean Time
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OrganizationUniversity of Cambridge
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RoleScientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online
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Research Interests (300 words)For my first and Master's degree, I studied plant taxonomy and ecology. My Master's project was to investigate both intra- and inter-specific variability in genome size within genus Eleocharis using Flow Cytometry. This led me to the lab based research. I became interested in plant physiology, mainly, but not exclusively, on the molecular level. I am intrigued by the genetics of photosynthesis and its adaptations to environment. I believe that understanding the genetic basis of photosynthetic adaptations can help to solve issues of food security in the future.
I have been involved in projects studying Crassulacean Acid Metabolism, a photosynthetic adaptation to drought, and most recently in the C4 rice project that investigates a possibility to improve rice yield by introducing C4 photosynthetic pathway. The C4 system is advantageous mainly in hot environment and is believed to be able to boost up the yield by up to 50% if engineered into rice. In order to succeed in this ambitious project, we need to understand fully the mechanisms of regulation and function of the C4 photosynthesis which is not the case to date. My research addresses one of the questions that remains unanswered – how gene expression is regulated in the cell specific manner that allows C4 photosynthesis to operate so efficiently.
During my research I have also developed a keen interest in the evolution. I find fascinating how different environment triggers evolution of very different morphological and physiological changes based on almost the same genetic basis.
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AvailabilityI am NOT available, please temporarily remove me from the available mentor list
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Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?2
Recent Posts
shsnewhousespring2020 project 6
Jane Knerova
Hi Elisabeth,
thank you for the update. If you do continue your work, keep me posted. So far, all is more or less ok here so I will be online as usual.
Fingers crossed that things get back to normal soon!;)
All the Best
Jane
… more
shsnewhousespring2020 project 6
Jane Knerova
Hi all,
I'm Jane, your projects' mentor. I've read the design of your experiment and I like the idea. I think it is an important question how the light intensity influences the plant growth.
I've just been wondering…
more
Bonhoeffercollege Project 9
Jane Knerova
Hi Wout,
well, I guess that gives you confidence that you did it right, doesn't it. Well done;) Can you please share a link?
What is your plan next? How are you measuring (or have measured) the difference in the growth of your…
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