Larissa’s MSc work is now published in Trees. Larissa was cosupervised by Heather, Antanas Spokevicius and Gerd Bossinger at the University of Melbourne.
When trees encounter physical stress, such as bending due to gravity or wind, they make a special kind of cell wall, called reaction wood, which can affect commercially-relevant properties of the wood. Larissa’s work investigated how microtubules and cellulose are reoriented during reaction wood formation in three economically important trees: poplar, pine, and eucalyptus. She found intriguing similarities and differences between these species that builds a more nuanced understanding of reaction wood formation.