From UCR News article, published November 18, 2021 by Jules Bernstein A team of researchers led by UC Riverside has demonstrated for the first time one way that a small molecule turns a single cell into something as large as a tree. For half a century, scientists have known that all plants depend on this...
"Plants as mRNA Factories for Edible Vaccines" September 17, 2021 Published in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News University of California-Riverside (UCR) researchers say they are studying whether they can turn edible plants like lettuce into mRNA vaccine factories. One of the challenges with this new technology is that it must be kept cold to maintain...
Alex Borowsky of CEPCEB and the Bailey-Serres lab has received an $180,000 grant award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study gene regulatory network dynamics of root barrier cell suberin deposition in rice. Alex is one of 117 recipients of the predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowship grants this year. NIFA states that...
UC, Riverside News Published 5/24/21 by Holly Ober Urban agriculture offers many benefits for food production but often has higher costs relative to traditional farming and is limited to only a few crops. Robert Jinkerson, an assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering at UC Riverside, is working to change this by engineering the size...
University of California scientists have discovered genetic data that will help food crops like tomatoes and rice survive longer, more intense periods of drought on our warming planet. Over the course of the last decade, the research team sought to create a molecular atlas of crop roots, where plants first detect the effects of drought...
Wenbo Ma has been selected to receive this year’s Ruth Allen Award of the American Society of Phytopathology. This award honors individuals who have made an outstanding, innovative research contribution that has changed, or has the potential to change, the direction of research in any field of plant pathology. Congratulations, Wenbo!
New research affirms a unique peptide found in an Australian plant can destroy the No. 1 killer of citrus trees worldwide and help prevent infection. Huanglongbing, HLB, or citrus greening has multiple names, but one ultimate result: bitter and worthless citrus fruits. It has wiped out citrus orchards across the globe, causing billions in annual...
UC Riverside scientists are betting an ancient solution will solve citrus growers’ biggest problem by breeding new fruits with natural resistance to a deadly tree disease. The hybrid fruits will ideally share the best of their parents’ attributes: the tastiness of the best citrus, and the resistance to Huanglongbing, or HLB, displayed by some Australian...
UC Riverside entomologist Hollis Woodard and bee researchers at 11 other institutions are leading the charge to gather the kind of data that will help governments and land managers justify new protective regulations for native bees. In a new Biological Conservation paper, Woodard and her colleagues lay out the need for this alliance of researchers...
Jason Stajich and Hailing Jin joined a class of 73 total fellows elected to the American Academy of Microbiology. The academy is a leadership group of scientists from around the globe within the American Society of Microbiology elected annually through a selective, peer-reviewed process. Additionally, Stajich was elected as a fellow of the Mycological Society...
A research team led by a scientist at the University of California, Riverside, has found olfaction — or smell — may play an important role in motivating mammals to engage in voluntary exercise. Performed in lab mice, the study may open up new areas of research and have relevance for humans. Study results appear in...
Ten researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have been included in the 2020 Highly Cited Researchers list compiled by Clarivate Analytics, which was previously part of Thomson Reuters. The list includes the 6,167 most frequently cited researchers in the physical and social sciences, recognized as “researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field.”...
Hailing Jin received a prestigious 5-year Maximizing Investigators Research Award (MIRA R35) from the NIH on “Cross-kingdom RNA communications between plant and fungal pathogens”, for a total of $1.89M. MIRA is designed to increase the efficiency of NIH funding by providing investigators with greater stability and flexibility, thereby enhancing scientific productivity and the chances for...
A prime example of across organisms and borderless scientific activities in IIGB was achieved by Thomas Eulgem and Karine Le Roch, with a well-executed collaboration bringing together researchers working in very different areas of genome biology. The project was initiated in Thomas Eulgem’s lab as the PI on the critical roles of the chromatin-associated Arabidopsis...
Xuemei Chen, Robert Jinkerson, and Meng Chen received an NSF grant to establish a transformative RNA sequencing technology for studying plastids. The plant cell stores its DNA in not only the nucleus but also the plant-specific organelles, the plastids. Plastid DNA can be transcriptionally programmed to instruct the differentiation of plastids into diverse types, such...
Yanran Li, an assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering, has received a New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program for a project to discover plant natural products of potential medicinal value and their biosynthesis through reprograming the plant innate immunity. Li’s research seeks to engineer and redirect plant...
Yinsheng Wang, a UC Riverside distinguished professor of chemistry, has won a highly competitive research grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, or NIEHS. Wang was one of five scientists nationally to receive the Revolutionizing Innovative, Visionary Environmental Health Research, or RIVER, award which provides grant funding to mid-career and established researchers and...
Scientists are closer to gaining the upper hand on a disease that has wiped out citrus orchards across the globe. New models of the bacterium linked to the disease reveal control methods that were previously unavailable. In this case, researchers created the first models of the bacterium associated with Huanglongbing or HLB, also known as...
Caroline Roper, an associate professor of plant pathology; and Shou-Wei Ding, a professor of plant pathology; are among the 2020 award winners from an international professional organization of plant pathologists. The American Phytopathological Society, or APS, regularly honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the science of plant pathology. Roper and Ding were presented...
A research team led by Jikui Song and Rong Hai at the University of California, Riverside, has outlined how the Zika virus, which constituted an epidemic threat in 2016, suppresses the immune system of its host. The study appears in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. The research involved first solving the crystal structure of a...
