The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) has elected CSB Professor Daphne Goring as a Fellow in recognition of her research breaking new ground with fundamental discoveries in key areas of plant biology.
Goring was selected to receive this honour for revealing details of two opposing elements underpinning plant sexual reproduction; she revealed the cellular factors that promote successful fertilization and she discovered the molecular processes that prevent fertilization by the plant’s own pollen.
When a male pollen lands on the female stigma of a flower, the stigma can accept or reject the pollen.
Pollen acceptance results in hydration of the pollen and growth of a pollen tube through stigmatic papillae towards the ovule, which is fertilized to make a seed. Goring’s work has identified the components within the cell that facilitate this process through exocytosis.
Rejection most often occurs when pollen is from the same flower, known as self-incompatibility. Goring revealed that the SRK protein on the surface of the stigma regulates self-incompatibility by signalling to proteins within the stigma.
In the agricultural field, understanding the genomics of self-incompatibility leads to crop improvement by matching cultivars for desirable traits in plant breeding.
Goring is enthusiastic about the importance of community in realizing her advances, citing early collaborations in Toronto and Guelph and a growing network of international colleagues: “When you contribute to a community, they contribute back to you through discussions, by sharing protocols, through interactions, through promoting your research as well”.
Goring is a leader in her community, serving as inaugural Chair of Cell & Systems Biology and as president of the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists.
At York University and now at University of Toronto, Goring trained generations of researchers in fundamental techniques in cell and molecular biology and protein biochemistry.
This broad knowledge makes it easy to transition to other fields and her trainees have gone on to pursue science in academia, hospitals and industry.
This active career as a researcher and leader has resulted in her election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Congratulations!