When I say Columbia, do you think Colombia the country? Columbia, South Carolina? Or Columbia University? Well to my surprise it was none of the above. My first conference was at the University of Missouri in the college town of Columbia. This is where the 21st Annual Missouri Symposium on Current Topics in Plant Biochemistry, Physiology, and Molecular Biology of “Plant Protein Phosphorylation-Dephosphorylation” was held from May 28 to 31, 2003.
As my co-worker, Mike Wierzba ‘02, UBRP alum from Dr. Brian Larkins lab, Plant Sciences, now a research technician in Dr. Frans Tax’s lab, Molecular and Cellular Biology and I stepped off of the mid-sized plane in St. Louis, Missouri we were greeted with an unexpected surprise; a very cool temperature with a slight breeze. To many this would be very pleasant, but to an Arizona desert rat, this was a rather freezing experience. The city itself is like any other city, with a downtown area of new developments next to old brick factories and storefronts, except for the famous “Arch” next to the great Mississippi River. As we headed west towards our destination, we were accompanied by the rush hour traffic, but satisfied by the green that took over the cement and red brick buildings along our way to Columbia.
Since we had arrived a day early for the conference, we took some time to explore the campus. The city was composed of a downtown area of merely four blocks in length surrounded by the campus with many college hangouts and bars. It was a small version of UA with its own perks and community feeling. We ate our first dinner in Missouri at the local pub and walked back to our rooms, which were plain old dorm rooms with three twin-sized beds, and identical desks and dressers. This brought back memories of my freshman year dorm life.
That night I was very excited to be at my first poster presentation, but I could not fall asleep until my roommate told me the meeting started at 8:00 am, which is 6:00 am Arizona time. This was not a very good thing because I am not the best morning person. Due to my excitement I actually woke up at a decent time and was ready to set up my poster and get some food in my stomach.
At the conference, I presented a poster on the project I have been working on for the last eighteen months in Dr. Frans Tax’s laboratory, Molecular and Cellular Biology. My project consists of understanding the functions of a family of eight leucine rich repeat receptor kinase genes in Arabidopsis thaliana, which is the model system for plant genetics. Arabidopsis has more than 400 of these genes, and rice has even more than Arabidopsis. Amazingly, the roles of only about a dozen of these genes are known so far. I received questions and comments from both graduate students and professors who were surprised that I was an undergraduate and had so much research experience. I was glad to answer questions and tell them why I was doing my project. Some people were friends of Dr. Tax or friends of people I know in other contexts, which made the presentation more comfortable and fun!
Each day there were speakers that presented their work on a variety of subjects, from phosphoproteomics to signaling cascades. Their presentations included data based on using molecular and cellular techniques and a surprising amount of biochemistry. Without the information I learned from both my cell biology and biochemistry technique lab classes, I would not have been able to understand as much as I did. From attending the speaker sessions, I found that research on tomatoes is becoming a hot topic and that information learned about genes in Arabidopsis is being applied to other organisms. Many plant scientists at MU attended the meeting and are conducting research ranging from the analysis of specific genes to understanding complex signaling pathways. Besides listening to speakers and talking to poster presenters, I had fun during the breaks and off time.
I talked to several science investigators from other universities and institutes around the world who are studying plant phosphorylation in Arabidopsis, tomatoes, tobacco, and other plants. I appreciated the interaction with the graduate students during the conference because they showed us around Columbia and gave us information only students would know. They took us to the local hangouts during lunch and pubs for late night talks after the conference. During this time I was able to probe the students and professors on graduate schools and different areas of study because I am at that step of deciding what to do after I graduate from UA. This was a great opportunity for networking and meeting other scientists in this field of study. For my first conference, I believe I learned a lot of useful information and made many acquaintances. I would like to thank Carol Bender, Genevieve Kenney, UBRP, and Dr. Frans Tax.
Although I did not have a chance to eat any of Missouri’s famous BBQ ribs or chicken, I did not leave without visiting the St. Louis Gateway Arch!
Danielle Nevarez, UBRPer in Dr. Frans Tax’s lab, Molecular and Cellular Biology
