What makes School of Biological Sciences graduate student Alex Trethewy unusual is that the grade-school experiment he performed with bean germination still animates him today in the form of research in the plant sciences.
Trethewy graduated from the University of Portland in 2007. He worked for a year in a subsidiary of Bayer’s crop science division. The task for his food science research group was to discover which of certain crop lines contained optimal nutrition, color and taste. The group worked on onions, tomatoes and carrots that had been created by traditional breeders from the same company.
“It was good experience,” he said. “I had wanted a year off from school, to expose myself more to the day-to-day work environment in plant research, and I now have the benefit of bringing a bit of that with me to graduate school.”
Although the crop and food-production links to botany are clear in Trethewy’s values when he speaks, he also is fascinated by many other aspects of plant science.
“I have interests in ethnobotany too,” he said. Ethnobotany studies how human societies use, manage and perceive plants in such areas as food, medicine, construction, tools, clothing, currency, religion and social life.
“In the end, I came to WSU to work with Professor Tegeder on molecular physiology in plants,” he said.
The transporters function like “gatekeepers” to control nitrogen uptake from the soil and then move it to places in the plant where it is needed for growth and reproduction. These transport processes have a strong effect on biomass production, seed yield and nutritional quality of food.
Recently, Trethewy found that improving transport activities in roots leads to increased nitrogen acquisition from the soil. This is an important discovery since it might lead to decreased nitrogen fertilization on agriculture land, which can have detrimental effects on marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
“Graduate work so far is very mind-expanding, both in classes and the lab,” he said. “Mind-blowing on occasion.
“I’m glad I came to WSU; this is a good place to be.”
