Dr. Roosa Laitinen
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Dr. Roosa Laitinen

  • Postdoc
Spemannstrasse 37-39


Tübingen D-72076
Email: roosa [ DOT ] laitinen [ AT ] tuebingen [ DOT ] mpg [ DOT ] de
Phone: 1405

Biography:

SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS

In my PhD I studied flower development in Gerbera hybrida. I found Gerbera to be an exciting system to approach questions related to flower development, not only because it looks nice, but also since unlike most of the model systems, its inflorescence consists of hundreds of flower (in three different types) that are organized in a flower head that mimics a single flower. 

After my PhD, allthough I liked the idea of studying a non-model species, I switched to study Arabidopsis. I am since February 2007, in the Max Planck Institute in Tübingen in the group of Detlef Weigel, studying natural variation in Arabidopsis. My main interest is to further understand the different genetic mechanisms behind hybrid incompatibility, a field of research in Arabidopsis that was established a couple of years ago in this Lab. 


OTHER INTERESTS

In parallel to my PhD studies I also studied theoretical philosophy and in which I am currently doing PhD studies. My major interest is in philosophy of science and in philosophy of biology. I will try to combine my research interest in my philosophical studies. At the moment I am mostly interested to analyse the mechanistic explanations in evolutionary processes (such as speciation) as well to analyse the concept of a gene and questions related to this. 


PUBLICATIONS:
  • Laitinen RAE, Ainasoja M, Broholm SK, Teeri TH, Elomaa P Identification of target genes for a MYB-type anthocyanin regulator in Gerbera. J Exp Bot. 2008.
  • Broholm SK, Tähtiharju S, Laitinen RAE, Albert VA, Teeri TH and Elomaa P A TCP domain transcription factor controls flower type specification along the radial axis of the Gerbera (Asteraceae) inflorescence. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008.
  • Laitinen RAE, Pöllänen E , Teeri TH, Elomaa P and Kotilainen M. Transcriptional analysis of petal organogenesis in Gerbera hybrida . Planta 2007.
  • Teeri TH, Uimari A, Kotilainen M, Laitinen R, Help H, Elomaa P and Albert VA. Reproductive meristem fates in Gerbera. J Exp Bot 2006, 57:3445-3455.
  • Laitinen RAE, Broholm S, Albert VA, Teeri TH and Elomaa P. Patterns of MADS-box gene expression mark flower type development in Gerbera hybrida (Asteraceae). BMC Plant Biology, 2006;6:11.
  • Teeri TH, Kotilainen M, Uimari A, Ruokolainen S, Ng YP, Malm U, Pöllänen E, Broholm S, Laitinen RAE, Elomaa P, Albert VA: Floral developmental genetics of Gerbera (Asteraceae). Advances in Botanical Research, 2006; 44: 323-351.
  • Laitinen RAE, Immanen J, Auvinen P, Rudd S, Alatalo E, Paulin L, Ainasoja M, Kotilainen M, Koskela S, Teeri TH and Elomaa P. Analysis of the floral transcriptome uncovers new regulators of organ determination and gene families related to flower organ differentiation in Gerbera hybrida (Asteraceae). Genome Research 2005; 15: 475-486.
  • Korpelainen H, Laitinen R and Pohjamo M. Lack of intraspecific variation in cpDNA in Trichocolea tomentella (Ehrh.) Dumort. Journal of Bryology 2004; 26: 227-229.
  • Elomaa P, Uimari A, Mehto M, Albert VA, Laitinen RAE and Teeri TH. Activation of anthocyanin biosynthesis in Gerbera hybrida (Asteraceae) suggests conserved protein-protein and protein-promoter interactions between the anciently diverged monocots and eudicots. Plant Physiology 2003; 133: 1831-1842.
  • Palva ET, Tähtiharju S, Tamminen I, Puhakainen T, Laitinen R, Svensson J, Helenius E and Heino P: Biological Mechanisms of Low Temperature Stress Responsse: Cold Acclimation and Development of Freezing Tolerance in Plants. JIRCAS Working Report 2002: 9-15.
  • Palva ET,  Welling A, Tähtiharju S, Tamminen I, Puhakainen T,  Mäkelä P,  Laitinen R,  Li C,  Helenius E, M. Boije, K. Aspegren, O. Aalto and P. Heino. Cold Acclimation and Development of Freezing and Drought Tolerance in Plants. Acta Hort 2001; 560: 277-284.
 
PhD thesis: 
 
Laitinen RAE. The gerbera cDNA microarray: A tool for large-scale analysis of genes involved in flower development. Dissertationes Bioscientarium molecularium Universitatis Helsingiensis in Viikki, 22/2006.

Education:

  1. 1999 BSc in Biology, Mid Sweden University.
  2. 1999 BSc in Biology and Energy engineering, Mid Sweden University.
  3. 2001 MSc with major in Biology, Mid Sweden University.
  4. 2006 MA with major in Theoretical Philosophy, University of Helsinki. Minor subjects: General literatur science, Art history, Feminism.
  5. 2006 PhD in Genetics, University of Helsinki.
  6. 2007- PhD student in Theoretical philosophy, University of Helsinki
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