Sessa lab attendance was a bit thin at Botany 2015, since we are all still recovering from the excitement of Next Generation Ferns and Lycophytes back in June. But Emily made the trek to Edmonton to give two talks, and was a co-author on another two presentations. All abstracts from Botany 2015 can be found here. It was a huge conference, with around 1400 attendees! Below are the details of the lab’s presence at this year’s meeting:
- Sessa EB, P Szovenyi, SW Graham, DW Stevenson, PG Wolf, CJ Rothfels, F-W Li, G Wong, JP Der. Gametophyte vs. sporophyte dominance and accompanying changes in gene content across land plants. Abstract.
*Invited talk in the 1KP colloquium, Phylogenomics and the 1000 plants (1KP) initiative - Sessa EB, M Vicent, JM Gabriel y Galán. Exploring potential asymmetric hybridization in a Mediterranean fern complex: the Asplenium obovatum group. Abstract.
**This talk won the Wherry Award! - Marchant DB, EB Sessa, K Heo, PS Soltis, DE Soltis. Transcriptomic and genomic investigations of the homosporous fern, Ceratopteris richardii. Abstract.
- Berger B, V Riciglicano, EB Sessa, A Gardner, K Shepherd, J Han, RS Jabaily, D Howarth. Using genome skimming to uncover coding and regulatory sequences of floral symmetry genes in Core Goodeniaceae. Abstract.
*All talks in the 1KP colloquium were live-streamed via iDigBio, and the files of each talk will be available for download from their site soon. We will post Emily’s talk here when it is available.
**Emily won the Edgar T. Wherry award for best presentation in the Pteridological/AFS section for this talk on the Asplenium obovatum complex! Wherry was an American botanist and mineralogist, and president of the American Fern Society from 1934–1939. He published several guides on eastern North American ferns, and donated the royalties from these books to the Fern Society. The Wherry award was established in his name by the Botanical Society of America in 1989. Sessa lab postdoc Sally Stevens won the award in 2013! You can find a longer biography of Wherry here.
Edgar T. Wherry. Image from http://on.doi.gov/1OGO8u9