'Rad Scientist' Episode 2: Liang Song Puts Herself Into The 'Shoes' Of Plants

A podcast called "Rad Scientist" gives us insight into the people who make up the research community. It is hosted by a scientist, she is named Margot Wohl. This introduces to Liang Song at the Salk Institute. She likes plans , a lot. She eats them, photographs them and she wonders whyWhat if she could make them strong enough to withstand a drought like California experienced recently.My name is Liang Song. I am an associate. When I was a kid, I played with plans because they do not run away from me. They are beautiful. I sometimes love to harvest some of the nectar from plants. Usually, it is supposed to be for the bees. Since I was able to harvest the flowers, I could directly enjoy it.One thing that is unusual, she talks about plants like they are people.If we put ourselves into the shoe of a plant, you will see they are so amazing. They are self-sufficient and generous.She spent a lot of time thinking about plants, specifically about their Mac DNA. Inside every cell of every living creature is a very detailed instruction manual that tells it how to function. That instruction manual, the genome is made up of DNA. For a long time, scientists had read a couple of pages but by the early 2000's, they were starting to decode manuals for some species.Before, it was Jean by Jean. Now, we can profile the entire genome. Even to compare the different genomes, the capacity to gain information is unparalleled.She studies the first plant to ever have its genome decoded, Cammack.This is a cousin of cabbage and kale. Kids hate to E them but they are good for your health.It is related to familiar vegetables that you probably would not want it on your dinner plate pickI do not think it is yummy in a.She is not the only scientist using this to study plant genetics. Last year, over 3000 studies used it. Why? It has a short lifecycle, a small genome which means sequencing can happen quicker and it is easy to grow in the lab. She uses this as a model to understand how plant deal with stressful conditions like extreme weather conditions that may result from climate change. A big one? Drought.In the past five years, drought is a big issue in California. Plans need to respond and deal with that. We look at pet and they look peaceful. They do not speak and they do not move.These plans could talk, they would probably be screaming. I am so thirsty. It is dry. Instead, they use a special chemical language.They make this hormone called asset.Plans how farmers? Back they have varmints. [ laughter ]This is basically like the Paul Revere of is. It travels through the veins of the plant, sending a message to the plant tissue. The British, I mean, the drought is coming. Hey Leif, hey stem, hey roots, it is dry in here. Spent it --To turn thePlant turns on and off the genes to start the production of is. Maybe it wants to save energy. Maybe it wants to grow new routes to capture more water. That is what she is interested in. Can we use genetics to improve the way plans deal with drought? To answer this question, she tested tens of thousands of plants. The plants live in a small windowless warehouse lit up by fluorescent bulbs. I entered to find a magical, green, paradise.Hello.I have a visitor here. She wants to see our plans. We have plenty of them.Cool. Thousands of small plans with tiny white flowers.We grow about 20,000 plans for an experiment.She wants to use them to figure out which genes are turned on and off when the warning hormone stops by. She has to figure out what the genes are doing.This is the level of the genes. Do they express more or less and to see what the changes at the plant level.Phenotype is the outward change that you can see like seed number or Leif size. In the first large experiment, she found genes that when turned on, they made the plant worse by dealing with stress. Weight. That is not what she wants.The logic is, if we increase the expression of the genes, if they are more viable to stresses, and maybe if we go to the opposite side and we decrease the suppression of the genes, there will be more resistance to the stress.She has a good idea of which genes might be important for drought resistance. The genes are also found in fruits and vegetables, her research could have a big impact on farming.There are many ways to improve plans by characterizing all of the plant responses at the molecular level. We understand which is most important. We can do that Cammack to stack the good features together.That is when the conversation ends up on the hotly debated subject of GMO or genetically modified organisms.Cammack -- [ Indiscernible ]. I always have two things in mind, one is the crop or the plant production. The other is the environment. The argument I make to myself is the more efficient we make our plans and our crops and the more land we can preserve for the wild species.One thing is clear. She is passionate about her science and how it can benefit the earth and mankind. She cares about her research subjects, the plants.I talked to my plans.That brings us to this episode moment. Dialogues with a plant.How do you feel growing here? What do you feel if I ask you to donate a leaf to me? What is your favorite day?SundayBackThey respond with bad jokes.I think you are the ultimate introverts. You keep the secrets to yourself and only the most curious human beings can probably uncover a small part of your secrets.That was Liang Song speaking in the second episode of "Rad Scientist". A podcast hosted by Margot Wohl is part of the K PBS explore program.