Thursday 13th November

Summary

The meeting focused on Dr. Chen Ji’s research on spatial transcriptomics in wheat to improve nutritional value and address global hunger challenges, highlighting technical advancements and collaboration efforts.

• The IBH webinar series features Dr. Chen Ji discussing spatial transcriptomics in wheat research.
• Dr. Ji’s research focuses on gene expression related to nutrient uptake in wheat grains.
• Wheat’s complex genome poses challenges for gene function analysis due to high similarity among gene copies.
• Spatial transcriptomics is a promising method for analyzing gene expression patterns in plant tissues.
• The research aims to enhance wheat’s nutritional value and address global hunger issues.
• A database will be developed to share spatial transcriptomics data for further analysis by the scientific community.
• Chen discussed the informatics team’s role in sample analysis and collaboration with Allison, David, and Guy.
• Stereoseek technology offers higher resolution compared to the 10X system for sample analysis.
• Chen highlighted challenges in cell segmentation due to varying cell sizes and staining issues.
• The double mutant’s survival issues stem from underdeveloped endosperm and high expression of the suit one gene in seeds.