Karolina Heyduk
University of Connecticut, CT·Plant Science & Agriculture·Early-career
Most plants make sugar using an enzyme called Rubisco, which captures carbon dioxide from the air. Under stress, Rubisco sometimes grabs oxygen instead.
- Fields
Plant Science & Agriculture
Ecology & Evolution
Genetics
- Topics
CAM photosynthesis
Crassulacean acid metabolism
C3 photosynthesis
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2031
What they work on
- Develop a gene-expression-based screening tool to discover and catalog C3+CAM vascular plants, which use both normal and drought-adapted CAM photosynthesis.
- Use comparative genomics across multiple independent origins of C3+CAM to identify the gene-regulation changes needed to move from C3 to C3+CAM photosynthesis.
- Determine how environment, the circadian clock and photorespiration (Rubisco's wasteful reaction with oxygen) regulate and drive the evolution of C3+CAM.
- Test the physiological and molecular responses of C3 and CAM bromeliad species to nitrogen limitation in experimental studies.
- Measure how nitrogen supply and photosynthetic pathway shape investment in leaves versus flowers, leaf litter quality and nitrogen cycling in terrestrial versus epiphytic bromeliads.
More about the research
This triggers photorespiration, a wasteful process that slows growth. Many plants have evolved workarounds. One is Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), a modified photosynthesis that gives desert plants strong drought tolerance. How CAM evolves from ordinary C3 photosynthesis, and how photosynthesis type shapes nutrient use, remain poorly understood. These two projects examine CAM from evolutionary and ecological angles.
Why it matters
Understanding how plants evolve drought-tolerant CAM photosynthesis adds to knowledge of how photosynthesis adapts to stressful environments. Insight into the genetic steps involved could eventually inform work on plant drought resilience. The bromeliad work could support conservation of threatened bromeliads in Florida. It may also improve models of how nitrogen-poor tropical canopy plants grow and recycle nutrients.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
CAREER: Understanding the evolutionary trajectory from C3 to CAM photosynthesis using C3+CAM intermediates
NSF · Jun 2026 – May 2031
Collaborative Research: RUI: Quantizing the functional trait spectrum: CAM photosynthesis, life history and nitrogen cycling in the diverse Neotropical bromeliads
NSF · Dec 2024 – Nov 2027
Closest labs
Gaurav Kandlikar
Louisiana State University, LA·Ecology & Evolution
Evaluate how long-term, frequent prescribed fire shapes the structure and function of soil microbial communities in longleaf pine ecosystems.
Helen Holmlund
Pepperdine University, CA·Plant Science & Agriculture
Compare water-use anatomy and physiology in hydrated, closely related desiccation-tolerant and non-tolerant ferns and lycophytes across six lineages, to find which traits go with surviving near-complete drying.
Jacob Suissa
University of Tennessee-Knoxville, TN·Ecology & Evolution
Test the Drought-Driven Hypothesis by measuring how vulnerable fern leaves, rhizomes and roots are to drought-induced embolism, the air blockages in water-conducting tubes, and linking this to vascular anatomy at architectural, tissue and cellular scales.
The school
University of Connecticut: 31 labs on PI Pages, $434M a year on research, 360 research doctorates a year.
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