Junior Abbi Dingus, who is a double major in Biology and Biochemistry, won the top undergraduate poster award (a $300 prize) at the Ohio State University Plant Sciences Symposium, which was held March 30th in Columbus, OH. Abbi's poster, entitled "Density-dependent growth responses of Arabidopsis to copper: High densities are beneficial for efficient contaminant uptake," summarizes work done for her Honors' thesis under the direction of Dr. Jeff Weidenhamer (Chemistry) and Dr. Soren Brauner (Biology). Collaborating on the project is Dr. Aki Sinkkonen of the University of Helsinki.
Abbi's work explores the mechanism for unexpected decreases in the toxicity of copper at high plant densities, and by using mutants of Arabidopsis that do not release citrate from their roots, provides evidence that the release of citrate can bind copper in the soil. At high plant densities with normal plants, the higher concentrations of citrate can reduce copper toxicity. Her work is relevant to the phytoremediation of soil contaminated with metals, which is a major global problem, and to ecotoxicological testing methods, which typically do not consider the importance of plant density. Abbi will make an oral presentation of her work at next week's URCA Symposium, which will be held on Tuesday, April 9th.
