2019 TPS Alumna
Current Employment
Postdoctoral Researcher in the lab of Dr. Guo-Liang Wang at The Ohio State University
Education
PhD, Translational Plant Sciences, The Ohio State University, August 2019
BS, Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology, The Ohio State University, June 2012
Research Focus
As an undergraduate, Irene worked with Dr. Rebecca Lamb to study genes important in flowering of Arabidopsis thaliana. After graduation, Irene worked as a Visiting Scholar in Dr. Erich Grotewold’s lab where she studied transcription factors that regulate the maize phenylpropanoid pathway. Her PhD work with Dr. David Mackey focused on the plant-pathogen interaction between maize and Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii.
TPS Program Experience
Rotations: Dr. David Mackey, Dr. Brian McSpadden Gardener, Dr. Anne Dorrance
Advisors: Dr. David Mackey (primary) & Dr. Ana Alonso
Internship: Ohio Soybean Council
Awards
2017-2019 United States Department of Agriculture, AFRI-ELI Predoctoral Fellowship
Publications
Castro-Moretti FR, Gentzel IN, Mackey D, Alonso AP (2020) Metabolomics as an Emerging Tool for the Study of Plant-Pathogen Interactions. Metabolites. doi: 10.3390/metabo10020052
Gentzel I, Giese L, Zhao W, Alonso AP, Mackey D (2019) A Simple Method for Measuring Apoplast Hydration and Collecting Apoplast Contents. Plant Physiol 179: 1265–1272
Asselin JAE, Lin J, Perez-Quintero AL, Gentzel I, Majerczak D, Opiyo SO, Zhao W, Paek S-MM, Kim MG, Coplin DL, et al (2015) Perturbation of maize phenylpropanoid metabolism by an AvrE family type III effector from Pantoea stewartii. Plant Physiol 167: 1117–1135
Burdo, B., Gray, J., Goetting-Minesky, M., Wittler, B., Hunt, M., Li, T., Velliquette, D., Thomas, J., Gentzel, I., dos Santos Brito, M., Mejía-Guerra, M., Connolly, L., Qiasi, D., Li, W., Casas, M.I., Doseff, A.I., and Grotewold, E. The Maize TFome – development of a transcription factor open reading frame collection for functional genomics. The Plant Journal 2014;80(2):356-366. doi:10.1111/tpj.12623.