Zeke Student

Zeke is working to understand how circadian rhythms can affect the interactions between plants and bacteria by studying Arabidopsis thaliana and Bacillus subtilis.

Circadian rhythms are biological cycles, that are self-sustaining and have a period of about 24 hours. They are important for aligning the biological processes of organisms to environmental changes such as light and temperature. Circadian rhythms have been found across all major kingdoms of life, including plants and bacteria.

Bacillus subtilis is a non-photosynthetic bacterium that creates mutualistic relationships with plants, it was recently discovered to also have a circadian clock leading to the hypothesis that the interactions between plant and bacteria may utilize circadian rhythms.

Zeke received his M.Sc. from the University of California, Davis where he quantified the interactions between human pathogens and lettuce.