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Jens Sundström

Jens Sundström
Senior Lecturer in Plant Biotechnology. My research is focused on molecular mechanisms regulating reproductive development in vascular plants, e.g. flower development and cone-setting, often integrated into an evolutionary framework.

Teaching

BI1294. Introduction course to the master program in Plant Biology for sustainable production (SLU), 2nd cycle, lecturer and course manager and responsible for the examination (15HP).

BI1103. Genetic diversity and plant breeding (SLU), 2nd cycle, lecturer, seminar leader, and responsible for the grading of written assignments (15 HP).

BI1279. Plant Physiology (SLU), 1st cycle, lecturer (15 HP)

BI1293. Plant growth and development (SLU/UmU), 2nd cycle, lecturer (15 HP)

BI1112. Biology (SLU/UU), 1st cycle, lecturer (7,5 HP)

Research

1. Transcriptional regulation of chromosomal gene clusters.

In this project, we study the transcriptional regulation of chromosomal gene clusters in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana. The project's main focus is to use a combination of bioinformatic analyses and molecular approaches to study the function and evolution of chromosomal gene clusters active during stamen development.

2. Early cone setting in Norway spruce

This project studies the genetic mechanisms that regulate cone-setting in spruce. Usually, spruce set cones after 20-25 years. To circumvent the long generation time, we utilize an early cone-setting spruce variety, Picea abies var. acrocona, that can produce cones within one year after seed germination. Our long-term goal is to enhance conifer breeding by shortening the breeding cycle of spruce.

Cooperation

1. In my capacity as EPSO representative, I am working with members of the European Parliament and the Plants for the Future European Technology Platform to follow up on the Parliaments report on plant breeding (vote 24.2.2014).

2. As part of my project “Early cone setting in Norway spruce” I am collaborating with Curt Almqvist at Skogforsk in Uppsala. This has resulted in two publications (Uddenberg et al. 2013 and Akhter et al. 2018). We currently have one joint PhD student in the project.

3. Main responsible for activities at the Fascination of Plants Day (FoPD), May 18th in Uppsala 2013, and since 2015 Swedish national coordinator for Fascination of Plants Day.

Supervision

Shirin Akhter, Doctoral Thesis No 2019:12 ISBN 978-91-7760-343-6

Charlotta Almquist, Doctoral Thesis No. 2016:26 ISBN 978-91-576-8555-1

Jenny Carlsson, Doctoral Thesis No 2007:68 ISBN 978-91-576-7367-1

Veronica Ståldahl, Doctoral Thesis No 2011:14 ISBN 978-576-7549-116526880

Daniel Uddenberg, Doctoral Thesis No. 2013:94 ISBN978-91-576-7926-0

Malin Abrahamsson, Doctoral Thesis No 2016:48 ISBN 978-91-576-8598-8

Selected publications

Selected scientific publications:

Giacomello, S., Salmén, F., Terebieniec, B.K., Vickovic, S., Navarro, J.F., Alexeyenko, A., Reimegard, J., McKee, L.S., Mannapperum, C., Bulone, V., Ståhl, O.L., Sundström, J.F., Street, N.R. and Lundeberg, J. (2017) Spatially resolved transcriptome profiling in model plant species. Nature Plants 3: 17061

Reimegård J, Kundu S, Pendle A, Irish VF, Shaw P, Nakayama N, Sundström JF, Emanuelsson O. 2017. Genome-wide identification of physically clustered genes suggests chromatin-level co-regulation in male reproductive development in Arabidopsis thaliana. in Nucleic Acids Research. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkx087

Uddenberg D, Reimegård J, Clapham D, Almqvist C, von Arnold S, Emanuelsson O, Sundström JF. 2013. Early cone setting in Picea abies acrocona is associated with increased transcriptional activity of a MADS box transcription factor. in Plant Physiol, pp. 813-823.

Fagerström T, Dixelius C, Magnusson U, Sundström JF. 2012. Stop worrying; start growing. Risk research on GM crops is a dead parrot: it is time to start reaping the benefits of GM. in EMBO Reports, pp. 493-497

Sundström JF, Vaculova A, Smertenko AP, Savenkov EI, Golovko A, Minina E, Tiwari BS, Rodriguez-Nieto S, Zamyatnin AA, Välineva T et al. 2009. Tudor staphylococcal nuclease is an evolutionarily conserved component of the programmed cell death degradome. in Nature Cell Biology, pp. 1347-1354.

Op-eds:

Dixelius C, Fagerström T, Sundström JF. 2012. European agricultural policy goes down the tubers. in Nature Biotechnology, pp. 492-493.

Sundström JF. & Fagerström T. 2014-10-29. The Warped World of Parallel Science, The Wall Street Journal

 


Contact

Senior Lecturer at the Department of Plant Biology; Plant Physiology, Jens Sundström
Telephone: +4618673247
Postal address:
Inst för växtbiologi, Box 7080
750 07 UPPSALA
Visiting address: Almas Allé 5, BioCentrum, Uppsala