Misuk Cho

My BS degree from Chungnam National University in Korea was in pharmacy. However, ever since witnessing fascinating plant anatomic scenes under a microscope, I have been working in plant science. I received a diplom’s degree in biology at Bielefeld University in Germany in 2003. Then, after returning to Korea, I entered the Ph.D. program in Biology at Chungnam National University and began working under the supervision of Dr. Hyung-Taeg Cho. I did post-doctoral work in his lab after moving to Seoul National University. In December, 2009, I began working as a postdoc with Dr. Edgar Spalding.

I am interested in auxin transport, root hair development and membrane trafficking. For my Ph.D. thesis research, I worked with p-Glycoprotein4 (PGP4, also called MDR4 and now known as ABCB4).  Using the Arabisopsis root hair system as a method for assessing auxin levels, I demonstrated auxin efflux activity for ABCB4. Now, I am preparing to develop a new method for measuring auxin transport activity using the patch clamp technique, which is potentially very accurate. I am also planning some exciting experiments based on computational image analysis of roots and root hairs in plants with genetically modified auxin transport mechanisms.

Publications

S-K Won, Y-J Lee, H-Y Lee, Y-K Heo, M Cho, and H-T Cho (2009) Cis-element- and transcriptome-based screening of root hair-specific genes and their functional characterization in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 150: 1459-1473.

M Cho, SH Lee, and H-T Cho (2007) P-glycoprotein 4 facilitates auxin efflux in Arabidopsis root hair cells and tobacco cells. Plant Cell 19: 3930-3943.

M Cho, OR Lee, A Ganguly and H-T Cho (2007) Auxin-signaling: short and long. J. Plant Biol. 50: 79-89.

DW Kim, SH Lee, S-B Choi, S-K Won, Y-K Heo, M Cho, Y-I Park, and H-T Cho (2006). Functional conservation of a root hair cell-specific cis-element in angiosperms with different root hair distribution patterns. Plant Cell 18: 2958-2970.

M Cho, AN Chardonnens, and KJ Dietz (2003) Differential heavy metal tolerance of Arabidopsis halleri and Arabidopsis thaliana: a leaf slice test. New Phytologist 158: 287-293