Dr. Vera Hesen

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ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vera-Hesen

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6821-3075

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vera-hesen-a58a03b8/

Twitter/X: https://x.com/VeraHesen

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YjfCNZ8AAAAJ&hl=en

Current Projects

I am a plant biologist connecting molecular biology to ecology and evolution and fascinated by the interaction between plants and their environment. Currently I am working as post-doc in the Collaborative Research Centre 1644 "Phenotypic plasticity in plants: Mechanisms, constraints and evolution" (https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/ppp/). Under the supervision of Prof Prof. Dr. Anja Linstädter I am part of project B3 "Genomic and functional underpinning of reaction norms of the leaf-economic spectrum across environmental gradients". Here, we employ a diversity panel of different Arabidopsis thaliana accessions and investigate how the individual LES traits and resulting composite trait modified in response to nitrogen availability.

Research Interests

• Evolution, local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in plants
• Developmental biology and molecular biology in plants
• Plant functional strategies
• Intraspecific genetic and phenotypic variation
• Soil ecology, both in abiotic and biotic context
• Traitbased analysis with a special interest in root architecture and the leaf economic spectrum (LES)

Education

Since November 2024 Post-Doc in CRC1644 "Phenotypic Plasticity in Plants", Biodiversity Research / Systematic Botany, University of Potsdam (Germany)

March and April 2024 Teaching assistant at the department of Molecular Biology, Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands)

June 2018 – January 2024 PhD Student at Cell and Developmental Biology, Wageningen University & Research, and at Terrestrial Ecology, NIOO-KNAW (The Netherlands)

February to May 2018 Teaching assistant at the department of Molecular Biology, Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands)

2014 – 2017 MSc Biology, major "Gene Regulation and Molecular Development", Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands) Graduated with ‘cum laude’ distinction

October 2016 – February 2017 Research intern as part of MSc internship at Estelle Laboratory, UCSD (USA)

May 2014 and 2015 Student assistent at the department of Experimental Zoology, Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands)

2011 – 2014 BSc Biology, major "Organismal and Developmental Biology", Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands)

Publications

Hesen, V.; Boele, Y.; Holmer, R.; Boesten, R.; Wijfjes, R.; Aarts, M.G.M.; van der Putten, W.H.; Scheres, B.;

Willemsen, V. Steep logarithmic increase of genetic variation in natural Arabidopsis thaliana accessions

across geographic scales. BioRxiv (2024). https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.26.591275

Hesen, V. Arabidopsis in succession: Pioneering with a molecular model along an ecological gradient. PhD

thesis, Wageningen University (2024). https://doi.org/10.18174/641751

Hesen, V.; Boele, Y.; Bakx-Schotman, T.; van Beersum, F.; Raaijmakers, C.; Scheres, B.; Willemsen, V.; van

der Putten, W. H. Pioneer Arabidopsis thaliana spans the succession gradient revealing a diverse rootassociated microbiome. Environmental Microbiome, 18, 62 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40793-023-00511-y

Kerstens, M.*; Hesen, V.*; Yalamanchili, K.*; Bimbo, A.; Grigg, S.; Opdenacker, D.; Beeckman, T.; Heidstra,

R.; Willemsen, V. Nature and Nurture: Genotype-Dependent Differential Responses of Root Architecture to

Agar and Soil Environments. Genes 12, 1028 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12071028

*shared first author