Journal Club: Sourcing the Secrets of Climate Adaptation

Thomas Juenger and Lauren Richardson

Posted April 13, 2021

Understanding how plants have adapted to natural climate change over millions of years provides a playbook of evolutionary strategies to help us prepare for and respond to man-made climate change. On this episode of the Bio Eats World Journal Club, host Lauren Richardson talks to Thomas Juenger, Associate Professor at the University of Texas in Austin and co-senior author of the recent article “Genomic mechanisms of climate adaptation in polyploid bioenergy switchgrass”, by John T. Lovell et al., published in Nature. They discuss how studying native plants — like switchgrass — can inform crop improvement strategies, the import role of switchgrass as a possible future source of biofuels, how advances in sequencing technology have unlocked the secrets hidden in plant genomes, and more.

Contributors

  • Thomas Juenger

  • Lauren Richardson is the Founder and Principal of LR Bio LLC.

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