{"id":714,"date":"2022-08-16T09:50:35","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T09:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mechecolab.blogs.bristol.ac.uk\/?page_id=714"},"modified":"2024-03-28T14:30:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T14:30:23","slug":"dr-skylar-johnson","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/?page_id=714","title":{"rendered":"Dr Skylar Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-977\" src=\"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SJohnson-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SJohnson-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SJohnson-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SJohnson-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SJohnson-660x880.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SJohnson.jpg 1309w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Postdoctoral Research Associate<\/h3>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Genetic underpinnings of trap function and <a href=\"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/?page_id=329\">development<\/a> in <\/em>Nepenthes<\/h4>\n<p>I am a biochemist with a PhD in Molecular Plant Sciences from Washington State University, USA. As a postdoctoral researcher in the Mechanical Ecology Lab, I am investigating the developmental patterning of the slippery trap rim surface as well as the regulation of &#8216;stickiness&#8217; in the trapping fluids of <em>Nepenthes.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The pitcher rim turns into a deadly water slide for insects when wet. Water spreads rapidly on the rim and forms a thin lubricating film that causes insects to &#8216;aquaplane&#8217; like a car tyre on a wet road. The extraordinary wettability and water spreading behaviour are based on a complex surface pattern of ridges and grooves on two different length scales. Cryo-scanning electron microscopy in our lab recently revealed that this complex microtopography develops via a series of distinct stages and patterning events. Together with <a href=\"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/?page_id=468\">Oona Lessware<\/a>, I use transcriptome analysis to gain an insight into the regulation of surface patterning during trap development.<\/p>\n<p><em>Nepenthes rafflesiana<\/em>\u00a0(and some other species of <em>Nepenthes<\/em>) contain viscoelastic trapping fluids which help to retain insects which have fallen into the pitcher. Preliminary chemical characterization suggests that these fluid properties are based on a complex branched polysaccharide in the pitcher fluid. Through field work with natural populations of <em>N. rafflesiana <\/em>in Brunei, former lab member <a href=\"https:\/\/researchportal.bath.ac.uk\/en\/persons\/nathaniel-kelly\">Nathaniel Kelly<\/a> and I showed that viscoelasticity decreases as the digestive enzyme activity increases over the lifespan of a pitcher. This suggests that there is a functional shift from a trapping- to a digestion-optimised fluid. My current research aims to investigate the underlying chemical and genetic mechanisms of these changes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Postdoctoral Research Associate Genetic underpinnings of trap function and development in Nepenthes I am a biochemist with a PhD in&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/?page_id=714\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dr Skylar Johnson<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":28,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-714","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1359,"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/714\/revisions\/1359"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}