“Elucidating the function of OsSULTR3;6 through seed physiology and mineral nutrition” Project Summary: Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the most important agricultural crops in the world, but diseases such as bacterial leaf streak (BLS), caused by...
“Examining the Effects of Domestication on Recombination Landscape in Maize” Project Summary: Maize and its wild progenitor, teosinte, are a valuable system for studying the process of crop domestication. Domestication of maize has led to drastic changes...
“To Bee or Not to Bee? Using Pollinators to Induce Soybean Hybrid Vigor” Project Summary: Commercial soybean lines (Glycine max) are often inbred due to the plant’s propensity for self-pollination. This not only can reduce yield, but also creates...
“Plant Resistance: Changes in Secondary Metabolite Profile of Intercropped Maize” Project Summary: Intercropping is an agronomic practice in which two or more crops are grown on the same field at the same time. It has been found that intercropping and...
“Understanding the Roles of Auxin and Ethylene in Physalis grisea Fruit Drop” Project Summary: Physalis grisea (groundcherry) is a fruit crop native to North America and is an underutilized species. Groundcherry easily drops its fruit through a process...
Project Summary: N2O, which has a global warming potential 300x higher than CO2, originates 56-70% from natural soils, predominantly when soil microbes undergo denitrification. However, there has been limited investigation into how different maize genotypes affect the...
“Manual sampling in maize and development of an earthworm-inspired robot for soil sensing” Project Summary: A plant’s roots and surrounding soil provide valuable information on plant and soil heath that cannot be observed from the surface. Rovers, drones,...
“Exploring the Biolistic Gene Transfer Approach for the Model Hornwort Anthoceros agrestis” Project Summary: Approximately 500 million years ago the first algae washed ashore and began the land plant evolution. The first land plants were nonvascular plants...
Project Summary: The genome serves as the blueprint for an organism, thus having a comprehensive understanding of the various functional elements within an organism’s genome provides for a deeper sense of its underlying biological regulation. Current genome annotation...
“Finding Genome Regions Associated with Pepper Fruit Shape Using Genome-Wide Association Study” Project Summary: Peppers are currently the fourth leading vegetable crop worldwide and are cultivated for an incredible amount of diversity in appearance....
“Investigating the activation/deactivation mechanisms of jasmonate signaling in maize (Zea mays)” Project Summary: The jasmonate signaling pathway controls many plant processes, including growth, development, and defense. One key component in this pathway...
“Construction of a graph-based watermelon pan-genome and investigation of genetic variation in cultivated watermelon and its wild relatives” Project Summary: Watermelon is one of the most popular and economically important fruit crops worldwide. The...
“Transcriptional regulation of the crosstalk between iron (Fe) and copper (Cu) homeostasis” Project Summary: Copper (Cu) and iron (Fe) are essential micronutrients for plant growth and reproduction. Plants balance the beneficial and toxic effects of these...
“Investigating the impacts of parasitism on herbivory & chemical communication in an insect herbivore” Introduction: Acalymma vittatum [Fabricus], the striped cucumber beetle (SCB), is a common agricultural pest to the cucurbit plant family. A....
“Structural diversity in cardenolides: Gaining insights into the biosynthetic pathway” Project Summary: Thanks to its phytochemical defense diversity, the Erysimum genus is better equipped to avoid herbivory than other plants in the Brassicaceae family....
Project Summary: Historically, engagement with social and ethical issues has come too late in the scientific process. My science communication project used discussion groups and workshops to examine how we create time and space for scientists to proactively engage...
“Hormonal modulation of root system architecture in wild tomatoes under salt stress” Project Summary: The increasing human population and reduction in land available for cultivation are threats to agricultural sustainability. This causes environmental...
“Exploring how Landscape Simplification Influences Plant Defensive Strategies as Mediated by Shifts in Herbivore Populations” Project Summary: As global populations continue to rise, agricultural demands have also increased. The expansion of agriculture has caused...
“Does Size Matter? Crithidia Bombi and Body Size in Wild Bees” Project Summary: Crithidia impacts the productivity of wild bees. It causes symptoms related to dysentery and has been found to affect multiple families of bees. Our research is focused on...
“Rhizosphere-on-a-chip for Microbiome Studies” Project Summary: The rhizosphere of a plant is an elusive soil ecosystem comprised of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that surround plant roots. The major barrier to studying rhizosphere microbiota is the...
“Viruses and their vectors: Investigating the effects of Pea enation mosaic virus (PEMV) on Acyrthosiphon pisum” Project Summary: Viral diseases contribute to large economic losses in agriculture worldwide and threaten global food security each year....
“Using Genomics to Understand Species Distribution in Threatened Aconitum noveboracense” Project Summary: There are over 250 species of Aconitum (Ranunculaceae) around the globe, with six being native to North America. One North American species, A....
“Developing Griffithsia monilis as a model for the study and kinetic optimization of rubisco” Project Summary: Rubisco, a vital but inefficient carbon-fixing enzyme, is the limiting factor in green plant growth. The rubisco found in red algae Griffithsia...
“Investigating Dipeptide Inhibition of phosphorylating Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPC)” Project Summary: Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, specifically GAPC1 (EC 1.2.1.12), is a key enzyme in the metabolic pathway of glycolysis....
Project Summary: The CLP protease system is conserved in bacteria, mitochondria, and higher plant plastids, such as chloroplasts, and functions to maintain protein homeostasis by degrading a wide variety of substrates. Several CLP protease components have been...
“Probing Nuclei in Insect and Plant Cells” Project Summary: The nucleus is an integral cellular structure that protects and organizes the eukaryotic genome. While the role of the nucleus has been well characterized, less is known about factors that can...
“Investigating the functional role of long non-coding RNA in seed germination and seedling development” Project Summary: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are genes found in all eukaryotes that do not encode a protein and are emerging transcriptional...
Project Summary: The family of ACA genes encodes Ca2+ ATPases, pumps that transport calcium ions out of the cytosol. A total of fourteen genes in Arabidopsis encode these pumps that reside in the plasma membrane, endoplasmic reticulum, or vascular membrane. The ACA10...
“Investigating the role of isopentenyl-diphosphate isomerase in regulating vegetative growth and biomass in Arabidopsis thaliana” Project Summary: Plant architecture is greatly influenced by the number, size, and shape of the organs. Organ size is of great...
“Functional characterization of ORRM encoding genes in Arabidopsis thaliana” Project Summary: Organisms engage in a process called RNA editing, in where genetic information is modified post-transcriptionally on RNA intermediates (Hammani and Giege 2014)....
“Optimizing a deep-learning based program that quantifies arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization” Project summary: The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is one of the most ubiquitous and important plant-fungal symbiotic relationships. During this...
“Toward a Fine Characterization of Chloroplast Ribonuclease J in Arabidopsis” Project Summary: The chloroplast contains around 100 genes and has elements of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic gene expression. Transcription in chloroplasts has inefficient...
“Looking deeper into the Pto/Prf disease resistance signaling pathway in tomato” Project Summary: The bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) causes bacterial speck disease in tomato, leaving the plant either unable to survive or the...
“SpinachBasev2: An updated central portal for Spinach genomics tools and information” Project Summary: Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is an important agricultural crop because of its nutritional value, popularity, and other potential applications to human...
Project Summary: Robustness is a property of living things by which they can grow organs of the same size and shape despite environmental differences. Even though robustness is common to most living organisms, the mechanisms behind robust growth are not well...
