Science IRL Features Agronomy Research on Plantago

Story by Marcus Mues

October 27, 2023

In the latest video from Science IRL, host Molly Edwards visited the lab of Dr. Cankui Zhang to learn more about their research on Plantago - a weed you'll probably recognize. The research focuses on genetic transformation, which allows scientists to turn genes on and off. PhD candidate Hannah Levengood has devoted a large part of her research to figuring out how to genetically transform Plantago. Utilizing agrobacterium, she can influence the genes that are inserted into Plantago specimens, and study the results. Hannah's work towards this end has been published, and can now be used by any scientist with any gene that they would like to apply to Plantago.

Watch the full video below to see the process from start to finish, and learn more about all the other benefits Plantago has to offer.

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