One thing about resurrection plants (maybe stress tolerant organisms in general) is that they grow slowly. It's not a bad strategy for survival, but it isn't great for impatient people like me. Still, I am excited to see these little Erograstis nindensis seedlings starting to get established.
E. nindensis is a desiccation tolerant grass that is sister species to E. teff . Together, these two species comprise a convenient system to identify stress tolerance mechanisms and apply the findings to an agriculturally important (although sadly underutilized) crop 🌾.
I am working on a small project to test the ability to E. nindensis to respond to stress priming. Basically, we will expose the plants to a minor stress and test if that increases their ability to withstand more intense stresses in the future.
In other news, I've been spending a lot of energy dealing with the logistics logistics of obtaining a "critical skills" visa in order to work in South Africa. It's been an incredibly a convoluted and difficult process, despite all the advantages that I have (a PhD, an American passport, money, a birth certificate, etc). This process has increased my empathy for anyone trying to relocate to another country substantially. Just saying....