Schnable Lab
Jensina Davis is a PhD candidate in the Complex Biosystems-Integrated Plant Biology specialization. She earned her BS in Agronomy and Seed Science with a minor in Statistics at Iowa State University.
Her research focuses on identifying genetic mechanisms responsible for natural genetic variation in phenotypic plasticity in maize, the changes to plant phenotypes that occur in response to different environmental conditions, including nitrogen and water deficit stresses. She uses statistical and computational approaches to identify the relative contribution of changes in gene expression to changes in organism-level plant phenotypes in response to environmental conditions. Prior to this project, Jensina used a large field trial dataset representing 122 maize hybrids with release years ranging from 1934 to the present to show increases in linear phenotypic plasticity and mean grain yield over the course of hybrid maize breeding in the U.S. She also led a project in collaboration with the Benes lab at Purdue University that used 3D reconstruction of sorghum plants to understand the genetic basis of the relative arrangement of leaves in the horizontal plane.
After graduation, Jensina plans to pursue a data science role in the plant breeding industry.