The college was pleased to welcome five new faculty members to its ranks during the 2023-24 academic year. Joining the Departments of Plant Biology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, and the Center for Neuroscience, each faculty adds breadth and depth to the college’s research and teaching portfolio.
For many plants, more branches means more fruit. But how does a plant branch or not branch? New research from the Department of Plant Biology has shown how plants break down the hormone strigolactone, which suppresses branching, to become more “bushy.” Using a combination of structural biology, biochemistry, and genetic engineering, the team confirmed the specific enzymes responsible for dismantling strigolactone, and their mechanism. Understanding how strigolactone is regulated could have big implications for many crop plants.
It wasn’t until Dustin Lower returned to college after more than a fifteen-year break that he finally found his niche, and a long sought-after green thumb.
Savithramma P. Dinesh-Kumar, Professor and Chair in the Department of Plant Biology, is one of the three professors from the University of California, Davis, have been elected as members of the National Academy of Sciences. They are among 120 new members and 24 international members announced by the academy April 30.
Joel Ledford, an associate professor of teaching in the Department of Plant Biology, has received the 2024 Excellence in Teaching Award from the Associated Students, University of California, Davis (ASUCD). The annual award celebrates teaching faculty for their dedication to students and undergraduate education.
“Getting an award like this from students means a lot to me,” Ledford said. “It’s an inspiring thing, and it makes you want to be a better teacher.”
Plants need to be able to communicate with themselves—by sending signals from their leaves to their roots to their flowers—so that they can coordinate growth and optimize resource use. They also need to communicate with other plants and organisms, which they achieve by releasing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), tiny molecules that are often associated with distinct smells. Scientists know a lot about how plants emit these odorous signals, however very little is known about how they receive and interpret them.
Two faculty from the College of Biological Sciences were included in this year's fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Siobhan Brady, a professor in the Department of Plant Biology and the UC Davis Genome Center, and Mariel Vázquez, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and the Department of Mathematics.
Sorghum, or broomcorn, is a staple crop in sub-Saharan Africa, but approximately 20% of annual yields are lost due to infections with witchweed (Striga hermonthica), a parasitic plant that steals nutrients and water by latching onto the plant’s roots.
A promising new fungicide to fight devastating crop diseases has been identified by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The chemical, ebselen, prevented fungal infections in apples, grapes, strawberries, tomatoes and roses, and improved symptoms of pre-existing fungal infection in rice.
Plants have to be flexible to survive environmental changes, and the adaptive methods they deploy must often be as changeable as the shifts in climate and condition to which they adapt. To cope with drought, plant roots produce a water-repellent polymer called suberin that blocks water from flowing up towards the leaves, where it would quickly evaporate. Without suberin, the resulting water loss would be like leaving the tap running.
Sunflowers famously turn their faces to follow the sun as it crosses the sky. But how do sunflowers “see” the sun to follow it? New work from plant biologists at the University of California, Davis, published Oct. 31 in PLOS Biology, shows that they use a different, novel mechanism from that previously thought.
Scientists have long known that chloroplasts help plants turn the sun’s energy into food, but a new study, led by researchers in the Department of Plant Biology, shows that they’re also essential for plant immunity to viral and bacterial pathogens.
Faculty and staff in the college’s eight graduate groups, including Dan Kliebenstein from the Plant Biology Graduate Group, were among this year’s recipients of mentorship and service awards by Graduate Studies.
This year’s CBS Dean’s Mentorship Awards recipients, including Nathan Meier from Plant Biology, were honored at a college award ceremony on Saturday, June 3.
