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Departmental Achievements

Plant Biological Sciences program ranked 6th nationally in 2007

The Chronicle of Higher Education ranks programs in top research universities according to their scholarly productivity. In 2007, the U of Minnesota ranked strongly in Botany and Plant Biology, at 6th overall in the nation. Ahead of the PBS program were similar programs at UC Berkeley, Cornell, Washington University, Georgia, and Penn State. The index rates programs according to the productivity of the graduate faculty in publications (60%), grants (30%) and awards (10%).

Plant Biology Faculty Achievements

New Grants to PBio Personnel

Congratulations to faculty members who received new grants beginning May 1, 2008, or for activities this summer:

Sue Gibson received a grant from the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council for a project entitled, “Exploiting genetic variation in soybean to improve seed composition and yield.”The project is a collaboration with Jim Orf, Jane Glazebrook and Fumi Katagiri.

,Carolyn Silflow received grants from the US Department of Energy and from the NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences to support an International Chlamydomonas Conference, held recently on the south coast of France. The awards were mainly used to support the participation of young scientists from the U.S. in this international meeting.

Sue Wick has received funds from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education to support a summer workshop, entitled “Investigative Plant BIology for Elementary Teachers."” The workshop, the latest in a series that has run for several years, is a collaborative effort between Sue, Jane Phillips, Emily Hoover (Horticulture), Sandra Mackey, Sandy Tanck (MN Landscape Arboretum), assisted by two elementary classroom teachers.

Nathan Springer Joins Editorial Board of Plant Physiology

Nathan Springer has recently been appointed to the editorial board of the Journal Plant Physiology, bringing the total of PBS faculty members serving as editors at the journal to four. He joins David Marks, Carroll Vance, and Kate VandenBosch on the board. Nathan will be handling submissions in areas related to his expertise in gene silencing, epigenetics, imprinting, gene expression and genome analysis.

Dr. Springer has also recently been the subject of an article on career development at the Science Careers site of the journal Science. The on-line magazine site provides tools and advice for job hunting and career development in science. The article featuring Nathan, “Plumbing the Green Genome” by Shawna Williams, discuss what it’s like to work in plant genomics and the impact of the National Plant Genome Initiative on the field. Nathan shares space in the article with Jeff Dangl, Carl Simmons and Susan McCouch.

Jane Glazebrook elected to the NAASC

Jane Glazebrook was recently elected to the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee for a four year term. NAASC is the main body to organize the annual International Conference on Arabidopsis Research when it is held in North America, and it chooses the sight for meetings which outside of North America. NAASC also pursues funding to support participation of junior scientists, scientists from underrepresented groups, and those from Minority-Serving Institutions in the annual Arabidopsis meeting. The Committee also acts as a liason between the Arabidopsis scientific community, granting agencies, the government and represents the community to Arabidopsis service facilities. The Department of Plant Biology congratulates Jane and thanks her for this service.

Results of 08-09 CBS-University Senate Elections

We are pleased to inform you that upon completion of the Faculty Senate Elections, our new Senator for the College of Biological Sciences is Susan Gibson. She will join our continuing Senators David Biesboer, Sehoya Cotner, Bruce Fall and Sarah Hobbie.

Congratulations to Peter Tiffin!

The Department of Plant Biology congratulates Peter Tiffin, whose tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, has been approved by the University of Minnesota. Dr. Tiffin joined the Plant Biology Faculty in January of 2002, after obtaining a Ph.D. at Duke University and pursuing post-doctoral research at UC-Irvine. Peter's research interests focus on plant evolutionary mechanisms, with an emphasis on responses to abiotic factors, such as CO2 enrichment, and biotic factors, including mutualisms and pathogenesis. Current research includes two NSF-sponsored projects; one, funded by NSF Plant Genome, investigates comparative population genomics of Poplar, and is a joint award with the University of Alaska. The second is a collaborative project with colleagues from Cornell University and Grinell College, and investigates ecological and evolutionary limits of range expansion.

Peter Tiffin is also this year's recipient of the John Hall Memorial research award in Plant Evolutionary Biology. The award recognizes the contributions of Dr. Hall, a faculty member in the Department of Botany from 1953 until his death in 1986, whose research emphasized evolutionary biology of plants. Past awardees have included Steve Gantt, John Doebley, Georgiana May, David McLaughlin, and George Weiblen. This year, the Hall fund will support a project in Dr. Tiffin's lab, entitled “Effects of global climate change on plant evolution”. Read more about Dr. Tiffin at http://www.cbs.umn.edu/plantbio/faculty/TiffinPeter/.

George Weiblen receives

George Weiblen has received an Interdisciplinary International Institutional Partnership Grant from the U of Minnesota's Office of International Programs. The award will support a project entitled, “International Infrastructure for Tropical Forest Research.” The award will further interactions of Dr. Weiblen's research group with researchers from the Czech Republic and Papua New Guinea in their efforts to accelerate the development of large-scale, long-term tropical forest research site in Papua New Guinea. The participants will convene in Panama, the location of such a large-scale forest research plot, and a point of coordination for plots worldwide. Read more about Dr. Weiblen at http://www.cbs.umn.edu/plantbio/faculty/WeiblenGeorge/.

Two Plant Biologists featured on University Home Page

Two weeks ago, people who accessed the University's home page saw two Plant Biology faculty featured in the UMNnews section. Jennifer Powers’ work on Costa Rican dry land forests was and its implications for dynamics of carbon cycling was profiled by Stephanie Xenos.

A second article by Deane Morrison described a study on interactions between legumes and their nitrogen-fixing symbionts by Kate VandenBosch’s lab, in collaboration with colleagues at MIT.

Plant Biology Staff Achievements

Gail Kalli receives Outstanding Graduate Program Assistant Award

Congratulations to Gail Kalli, whose many efforts for the PBS Graduate program have been recognized with the U's Outstanding Graduate Program Assistant Award. Of course, all of us in the program have known for some time how special she is, and how important to the success of PBS. It's a great that she's finally received this university-wide recognition. Thanks to Gail for your many contributions for the benefit of all.

Plant Biology Graduate Student Achievements

Brian Piasecki receives Fulbright Fellowship

Brian Piasecki, a student in the PBS program working with Carolyn Silflow, has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Sweden during the 2008-2009 academic year. He will be working with Dr. Peter Swoboda in the Dept. of BioSciences and Nutrition at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. His Fulbright project will be “The molecular dynamics of centrioles: a bioinformatics and genetic approach using C. elegans.” Brian plans to complete his Ph.D. work here in June.

PBS student Victoria Ranua featured in Minneapolis Star Tribune

Plant Biological Sciences graduate student Victoria Ranua was featured in a front page article in the Star Tribune on Sunday, May 4th, for her work with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC). Victoria is an alumna of our Plant Biology undergraduate program, and is currently working towards a M.S. in PBS, under the mentorship of Cynthia Weinig. She expects to defend her M.S. thesis this summer. While working towards her master's degree, Victoria has also been working with the SMSC as an environmental scientist. The tribe is purchasing parts of its original land holdings in Scott County, south of the Twin Cities, with the goal of returning the land to something more akin to its original, pre-European settlement, vegetation. Victoria writes that the job “has really made me into the professional local botanist I always wanted to be. It varies from a detailed floral survey of tribal lands, to writing and responding to local environmental assessment and environmental impact statements, to prairie management and wetland restorations, to vegetated roof research (the SMSC has the largest green roof in the Midwest, with another one on the way), to assisting Community members with locating native plants. This summer we may be planting over 300 acres of farmland back to prairie for buffalo forage and for use in the SMSC's new bio-fuel energy plant (Koda Energy). The biofuel aspect will take what has been happening up at Cedar Creek to production scale.” The Star Tribune article describes the work of Victoria and her colleagues as they conduct a controlled burn. The article can be accessed at: http://www.startribune.com/local/south/18539994.html.

Plant Biological Sciences TAs Recognized for Outstanding Assistant Performance

Congratulations to Rachel Mills, who is a recipient of a CBS Award for Outstanding Performance as a Teaching Assistant in 2007. Rachel is a graduate student in the PBS Program, and is pursuing her research under the mentorship of Ruth Shaw. Rachel is recognized for her excellent contributions as a TA in Biol 2022, General Botany. Nick Deacon and Charles Rowher are two other Plant Biology-affiliated TAs that were amon the top ten finalists for the outstanding TA award for 2007. Nick is a PBS student who is pursuing his research under the mentorship of Jeannine Cavender-Bares, and who was nominated for his service as a TA in Biol 3007W, Plant Diversity and Adaptation. Charles is an Applied Plant Sciences Student, advised by John Erwin in the Department of Horticultural Sciences. He was nominated for his service as a TA in Biology 1001 in Spring, 2007, to which he was appointed by Plant Biology. More recently, Charlie was also a TA in Biol 3005W, Plant Function.

Congratulations and Thanks to all three for their important contributions to our teaching programs.

Plant Biology-Affiliated Students Receive Awards

The Ernst C. and Lucy B. Abbe Award is given to undergraduate students who have demonstrated a high level of academic and research accomplishments in the plant biological sciences, and who intend to pursue graduate studies. The Department of Plant Biology is pleased to report that this year's award will be made to Brian Arnold, a graduating senior in Plant Biology. Brian has been very active in research while an undergraduate. He first served as a research assistant with Cynthia Weinig on a project investigating evolution of plant phenology and morphological traits.  Subsequently, he has been working with Neil Olszewski on the roles of the genes SPY and RGA in gibberellin signaling. Brian has also been active as a teaching assistant while a student here, having been a TA for general botany last fall and for biochemistry this spring. Brian plans to pursue graduate studies, but first he will enjoy a year in Finland at the University of Oulu, where he will work with Dr. Outi Savolainen on the genetic basis of flowering time adaptation in Arabidopsis lyrata. Brian will be presented with the Abbe Award on May 15th, at the Plant Biological Sciences graduate program retreat.

Recent Publications

Florence Gleason
Marko, M.D., Gross, E.M., Newman, R.M., and Gleason, F.K.(2008) Chemical profile of the North American native Myriophyllum sibiricum compared to the invasive M. spicatum. Aquatic Botany, 88: 57-65.

Jennifer Powers: Sayer EJ, Powers JS, Tanner EVJ (2007) Increased Litterfall in Tropical Forests Boosts the Transfer of Soil CO2 to the Atmosphere. PLoS ONE 2(12): e1299. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001299

Imke Schmitt
Schmitt I, Partida-Martinez LP, Winkler R, Voigt K, Einax E, Dölz F, Telle S, Wöstemeyer J, Hertweck C (2008) Evolution of host resistance in a toxin-producing bacterial-fungal alliance. ISME J 2:632-641

Kathryn VandenBosch
Jones, K.M., Sharopova, N., Lohar, D.P., Zhang, J.Q., VandenBosch, K.A., and Walker, G.C.  2008.  Differential response of the plant Medicago truncatula to ints symbion Sinorhizobium meliloti or an exopolysaccharide-deficient mutant.  PNAS 105:704-709.

Nevin Young
Wang, B.B., O’Toole, M., Brendel, V., Young, N.D. (2008) Novel and conserved alternative splicing events are revealed by cross-species EST alignments in legumes. BMC Plant Biology 8:17.

Ameline-Torregrosa, C., Wang, B.-B., Denny, R.L., O’Bleness, M., Despande, S., Zhu, H., Roe, B., Young, N.D., Cannon, S.B. (2008) Identification and characterization of NBS-LRR encoded genes in the model plant Medicago truncatula. Plant Physiology 146: 5-21.

Li, L., He, H., Zhang, J., Wang, X., Bai, S., Stolc, V., Tongprasit, W., Young, N.D., Yu, O., Deng, X.W. (2008) Transcriptional analysis of highly syntenic regions between Medicago truncatula and Glycine max using tiling microarrays. Genome Biology 9(3): R57.