ABOVE: MCKELVEY SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
Barbara Pickard, a plant mechanobiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, died December 6 after complications following hip surgery, according to a statement from the Center for Engineering MechanoBiology. She was 83 years old.
Pickard was known for her work on plant sensory physiology, especially on plant electrical responses to hormones, proteins, and external stressors, according to the Center for Engineering MechanoBiology (CEMB). In 1988, she was part of a team that identified the first stretch-activated ion channels in plant cells, which help maintain water content. Several years later, she was also among the first researchers to describe mechanosensory calcium?selective cation channels, which detect mechanical stress along with electrical, chemical, and thermal stimuli. Her more recent research demonstrated that antennae-like hairs on sprouts of Arabidopsis thaliana are mechanosensors that may respond to vibrations caused by caterpillars chewing on the plant’s leaves.
Pickard ...
