Positions, News, & Upcoming Events

POSITIONS
	Bioinformatics Faculty Position: Deadline for Receipt of Applications January 1, 2008!
EVENTS
	Faculty Research Lecture by CEPCEB Director Natasha Raikhel: May 16, 2008
	24th Symposium in Plant Biology — "Gene Silencing: The Biology of Small RNAs and the Epigenome" — January 18-20, 2007 at the Riverside Convention Center
	CEPCEB Seminars
	Bioinformatics Workshops and Related Seminars
	Microscopy Workshops
	Genomics Building Ceremonial Groundbreaking: October 18, 2006
NEWS
	2008 Recipient of CEPCEB Plant Cell Biology 1st Place Award at the RIMS Inland Science & Engineering Fair
	Outstanding 2008 CEPCEB Postdoctoral, Graduate Student and Undergraduate Student Awards Recognized at Sixth Annual CEPCEB Award Ceremony: January 18, 2008
	NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Deadline for Applications: March 3, 2008!
	CEPCEB/IIGB Member Xinping Cui Recipient of NSF Database and Informatics Grant
	CEPCEB/IIGB Member Sean Cutler's Publication in Nature Chemical Biology Explores Drug Resistance in Humans
	CEPCEB Member Venugopala Reddy Gonehal Awarded $1M by NSF to Study Plant Stem Cell Identify Factors
	CEPCEB Member Hailing Jin Recipient of NSF Career Award
	2007 Recipients of CEPCEB Plant Cell Biology Awards at the California State Science Fair
	2007 Recipients of the CEPCEB Plant Cell Biology Awards at the RIMS Inland Science & Engineering Fair Winners
	CEPCEB Director Natasha Raikhel Recipient of the 2007 Fellow of ASPB Award
	CEPCEB IGERT Graduate Student Colleen Knoth Receives 8th Annual W.W. Thomson Award for Outstanding Research
	CEPCEB Member Cynthia Larive Receives the 2007 J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education
	CEPCEB Member Xuemei Chen and IIGB Member Cheryl Hayashi Appointed 2006-07 University Scholars!
	Congratulations to 2007 Recipients of Outstanding CEPCEB Postdoctoral, Graduate Student and Undergraduate Student Awards at Fifth Annual CEPCEB Award Ceremony:February 9, 2007
	CEPCEB Student Michelle Brown Recipient of Chancellor's Distinguished Fellowship
	CEPCEB Member Xuemei Chen Recipient of 2006 Charles Albert Shull Award
	August 2006 Nature and The Plant Cell Papers by CEPCEB Member Julia Bailey-Serres Offers Hope of Submergence Tolerant Rice Lines for Poor Rice Farmers
	High-throughput Genomics Paper Published in June 2006 PNAS Issue by CEPCEB Member Katherine Borkovich
	CEPCEB Site for 2007 NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program
	CEPCEB Member Thomas Eulgem Receives 2006 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research
	March 2006 Article in Science by CEPCEB Member Shou-wei Ding and Colleagues Show Fruit Flies Employ Same Defense Mechanism Against Viruses as Plants
	CEPCEB Member Stefano Lonardi Part of $5 Million USDA Research Consortium to Produce Better Barley
	CEPCEB Member Mihri Ozkan Receives Distinguished Engineering Educator Award
	CEPCEB researcher Shou-Wei Ding and UCR Researchers Discover Model Organism (C. elegans) for Studying Host-virus Interactions
	CEPCEB Researchers Earn First NSF IGERT Grant for UCR ($2.9 Million)
	Congratulations to Thomas Girke as Recipient of the 2004-05 UCR Non-Senate Distinguished Research-Instruction Award
	ChemMine: Compound Mining Database Developed by CEPCEB Member Thomas Girke Open to Public
	CEPCEB Member Stefano Lonardi Awarded Five-Year NSF CAREER Grant Involving Bioinformatics Research
	CEPCEB Member Zhenbiao Yang's Paper in Cell (March 11, 2005) Explains Jigsaw-like Pattern of Plant Cells Contributing to Leaf Strength
	Contributions of CEPCEB REU Students to Published Works
	CEPCEB Member Mihri Ozkan Recipient of Visionary Science Award by ISBBN
	Natasha Raikhel Recipient of 2004 Stephen Hales Prize
	CEPCEB Member Katherine Borkovich First Author in MMBR Article that Analyzes over 1,100 genes of fungus Neurospora crassa (March 2004)
	CEPCEB Member Elizabeth Lord's PNAS Paper (December 2003) Identifies Plant Reproduction Protein
	CEPCEB Small Research Grants Awarded for Microscopy and Imaging
	Paper Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) June 10, 2003 issue by Raikhel Lab
	June 2003 Issue of Plant Physiology Has Significant CEPCEB Achievements
	CEPCEB Member Katherine Borkovich's Paper Published in Nature Involving Sequencing of the Neurospora Genome (April 24, 2003)
	CEPCEB Paper (Zhenbiao Yang, Ying Fu) Selected as Fast Breaking by ISI Essential Science Indicators
	UC Research Funded by U.S. Department of Energy (featuring CEPCEB Member Zhenbiao Yang's Research)
	Natasha Raikhel: Recipient of ASCB Women in Cell Biology Senior Career Recognition Award
	CEPCEB Member Shou-Wei Ding's Paper Published in Science (May 2002)
	Collaborative Work of Three CEPCEB Members Published in Science (June 2002)
	CEPCEB Member Julia Bailey-Serres: 2002 Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Faculty Mentor
	Natasha Raikhel: One of Most Highly Cited Researchers

Faculty Research Lecture by CEPCEB Director Natasha Raikhel: May 16, 2008

The honor of Faculty Research Lecturer for the 2007-08 academic year was bestowed upon Natasha Raikhel by the UCR Academic Senate Committee. This award recognizes superior achievement in research and is presented annually by the Chancellor to only one campus individual. According to Thomas Cogswell, Chair of the Academic Senate: The Faculty Research Lecturer Committee is honored to place in nomination Natasha Raikhel, Distinguished Professor of Botany and Plant Sciences, a scholar who, by every standard we could think of, will add luster to the award.  Professor Raikhel’s studies of the molecular mechanisms governing trafficking in plants and of genetic control of cell wall polysaccharide biosynthesis have made lasting scientific contributions in plant biology.  She has pioneered the use of chemical genomics to advance our knowledge of plant processes.  Director of the Center for Plant Cell Biology, Professor Raikhel has pushed back the frontiers of the field, with what her colleagues describe as her “superb experimentalist,” if not “traditionalist,” approach: “It is fair to say that she is the world expert in this area” of “secretory trafficking,” especially with regard to its “multiple functions.” To celebrate this honor, Dr. Raikhel will present a talk titled "Plant Biology: From Cells to Systems?" on May 16, 2008 at 3:30pm in the University Theatre. There will be a reception at 5:00pm following the lecture at the Chancellor's residence.

NATASHA RAIKHEL 56th Annual Faculty Research Lecturer

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2008 Recipient of CEPCEB Plant Cell Biology 1st Place Award at the RIMS Inland Science & Engineering Fair

SRAVYA KEREMANE John W. North High School Poster Title: "Biochemical Analysis of the Mechanisms of Cold Tolerance in Citrus"

2007 RIMS Inland Science and Engineering Fair CEPCEB Plant Cell Biology FIRST PLACE AWARD

Sravya Ramadugu Keremane, a senior from John W. North High School in Riverside, is the recipient of CEPCEB's Plant Cell Biology First Place Award presented on April 16, 2008 at the Inland Science and Engineering Fair in San Bernardino, California for her poster titled "Biochemical Analysis of the Mechanisms of Cold Tolerance in Citrus." The Fair is an annual competition of science projects designed, developed, and displayed by elementary and secondary students from schools in Riverside, Inyo, Mono and San Bernardino (RIMS) counties. CEPCEB annually acknowledges scientific achievement at this fair in the fields of cell and molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, or technology development by a student in grades 9-12. The high school prize winner receives $100, a CEPCEB Award Certificate, and is invited to participate in the annual CEPCEB Noel T. Keen Lecture and Award Ceremony.   The CEPCEB Award Fund was created in 2002 to annually acknowledge research excellence at the postdoctoral, graduate student, undergraduate student and high school levels.  CEPCEB appreciates the contribution of Harley Smith for participating as a judge in this event, and the many who have made donations to recognize and support our community's next generation of talented young scientists.

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Outstanding CEPCEB Postdoctoral, Graduate Student and Undergraduate Student Awards Recognized at Sixth Annual CEPCEB Award Ceremony: January 18, 2008

The following individuals were recognized for their outstanding scientific achievements during 2007-08:

Outstanding CEPCEB Postdoctoral Fellow(s)	Outstanding CEPCEB Postdoctoral Fellow(s)	Outstanding CEPCEB Graduate Student	Outstanding CEPCEB Undergraduate Student
EUN-JU (JULIE) SOHN Botany & Plant Sciences (Mentor:N. Raikhel)	MARCELA ROJAS-PIERCE Botany & Plant Sciences (Mentor: N. Raikhel)	COLLEEN KNOTH Botany & Plant Sciences (Mentor: T. Eulgem)	ZUH JYH (DANIEL) LIN Botany & Plant Sciences Mentor: V. G. Reddy

CEPCEB would like to congratulate the individuals above for their well-deserved awards!

Gloria M. Coruzzi Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor Chair, Department of Biology New York University

Sixth Annual Noel T. Keen Lecturer: Dr. Gloria Coruzzi, a Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at New York University, was the annual Noel T. Keen Lecturer at the sixth annual Award Ceremony. Dr. Coruzzi has been a professor at New York University (NYU) for the past 16 years and currently serves as Chair of the Biology Department. Prior to her professorship at NYU, she was a faculty ­member at Rockefeller University since 1983, and has published over 90 papers in major journals. Her prominent stature and groundbreaking discoveries in the scientific field have allowed her to currently be awarded over $20 million of federal funding for research projects. The research in Dr. Coruzzi’s lab is ­focused on identifying the underlying mechanisms responsible for the transcriptional regulation of metabolic networks in Arabidopsis. In particular, her studies involve identifying gene networks, whose expression is controlled by the intersection of light, carbon and nitrogen signals, and the regulatory pathways controlling them. Title of Dr. Coruzzi's talk:  A Systems Approach to Nitrogen Regulatory Networks and the Virtual Plant.   Back to Top

CEPCEB/IIGB Member Xinping Cui Recipient of NSF Database and Informatics Grant

IIGB/Cepceb Member and Assistant Professor of Statistics Xinping Cui was awarded a three-year NSF grant from the Database and Informatics Program for her project titled "Statistical and Computation Tools for Identifying Microarray-based Expression and Single Feature Polymorphism Markers in Crops." This project aims to develop a new unified statistical protocol and software to integrate the use of microarray expression data, sequence data and functional genomics for the detection of genetic polymorphisms (SFPs and GEMs) on large-genome species. Congratulations to Dr. Cui in this highly competitive award!

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CEPCEB/IIGB Member Sean Cutler's Publication in Nature Chemical Biology Explores Drug Resistance in Humans In the Sept. 23, 2007 online publication of Nature Chemical Biology, IIGB/CEPCEB Member and Plant Cell Biologist Sean Cutler and his lab discovered a key protein in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana that creates drug resistance. By analyzing the effect of biochemical processes on simple organisms such as plants, the Cutler lab was able to explore factors influencing variations in drug responses and drug sensitivities in humans. UCR Press Release [dated September 26, 2007]

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CEPCEB Member Venogopala Reddy Gonehal Awarded $1M by NSF to Study Plant Stem Cell Identify Factors

IIGB and CEPCEB Member Venugopala Reddy Gonehal was recently awarded $1M by the National Science Foundation to study factors related to plant stem cell identity, maintenance, and transition to different cell types. Dr. Reddy and the UCR postdoctoral fellows and graduate students in his lab will isolate stem cells in the model plant Arabidopsis and attempt to decipher gene identify and function over the four-year project period. By utilizing microgenomics and live imaging techniques, Dr. Reddy hopes to gain further insight into stem cell regulation and communication. UCR Press Release [dated September 6, 2007]

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CEPCEB Member Hailing Jin Recipient of NSF CAREER Award

CEPCEB Member Hailing Jin has been awarded a five-year NSF CAREER award in the amount of $745,000 for her project titled ""CAREER:Genome-wide Analysis of Pathogen-induced Endogenous siRNAs in Plant Defense Responses in Arabidopsis." This project proposes to reveal new regulatory mechanisms underlying plant disease resistance and defense responses and ultimately contribute to the development of new strategies to combat plant pathogens to improve agriculture.

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization. Congratulations to Hailing Jin on this distinguished achievement!

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2007 Recipients of CEPCEB Plant Cell Biology Awards at the California State Science Fair

The CEPCEB Plant Cell Biology Award acknowledges scientific achievement in the fields of cell and molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, or technology development. While research in these areas using plant systems is an advantage, other model systems are considered if there is relevance to the field of plant biology.

CONGRATULATIONS to all the California State Science Fair Award Recipients!

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2007 Recipients of the CEPCEB Plant Cell Biology Awards at the RIMS Inland Science & Engineering Fair

The Center for Plant Cell Biology congratulates VASILIOS MORIKIS, the 2007 recipient of the CEPCEB Plant Cell Biology First Place Award presented on April 17, 2007 at the Inland Science and Engineering Fair in San Bernardino, California. The Fair is an annual competition of science projects designed, developed, and displayed by elementary and secondary students from schools in Riverside, Inyo, Mono and San Bernardino (RIMS) counties. CEPCEB annually acknowledges scientific achievement at this fair in the fields of cell and molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, or technology development by a student in grades 9-12. CEPCEB also congratulate SRAVYA KEREMANE, who received an Honorable Mention CEPCEB Award for his work. The Center appreciates the contribution of members David Carter and A.L.N. Rao for participating as judges in this event. 2007 RIMS Inland Science and Engineering Fair CEPCEB Plant Cell Biology FIRST PLACE AWARD 2007 RIMS Inland Science and Engineering Fair CEPCEB Plant Cell Biology HONORABLE MENTION AWARD VASILIOS MORIKIS Poly High School, Riverside, CA "Dancing Helices in a Vacuum, a Computational Study of Peptide Molecular Dynamics" SRAVYA KEREMANE North High School, Riverside, CA "Biochemical Analysis of the Mechanism of Cold Tolerance in Citrus" CONGRATULATIONS TO THESE PROMISING YOUNG SCIENTISTS!

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CEPCEB Director Natasha Raikhel Recipient of the 2007 Fellow of ASPB Award

IIGB Director Natasha Raikhel has been selected as the 2007 recipient of the Fellow of ASPB Award. Established in 2007, the Fellow of ASPB Award is granted in recognition of distinguished and long-term contributions to plant biology and service to the Society of current members in areas that include research, education, mentoring, outreach, and professional and public service. Current members of ASPB who have contributed to the Society for at least 10 years are eligible for nomination. Recipients of the Fellow of ASPB honor are granted to no more than 0.2 of the current membership each year.

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CEPCEB IGERT Graduate Student Colleen Knoth Receives 8th Annual W.W. Thomson Award for Outstanding Research

At the annual Botany & Plant Sciences Research Retreat at the Botanic Gardens on May 11, 2007, CEPCEB ChemGen IGERT Graduate Student Colleen Knoth was awarded the 8th Annual W.W. Thomson Award for Outstanding Research. This cash award in the amount of $1200 is presented annually to a Ph.D. and/or Master's student in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences who has demonstrated academic excellence and achievement in research. The award is named after William (Bill) W. Thomson, a retired faculty member from the Botany & Plant Sciences department who, upon retirement in 1999, established the W. W. Thomson Award fund.  Professor Thomas developed a distinguished research record, focusing on the relationships between the structure of plant cells and their function.  He is a world-renowned leader in the application of electron microscopy to the study of plant cell structure.

• Colleen Knoth's research program
  

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CEPCEB Member Cynthia Larive Receives the 2007 J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education

CEPCEB Member and Professor of Chemistry Cynthia Larive has received the 2007 J. Calvin Giddings Award in recognition of her excellence in teaching. Her contribution to the successful recruitment and mentoring of NSF REU and IGERT students alone attests to Dr. Larive's incredible contribution to the personal and professional development of students in the study of analytical chemistry. CEPCEB congratulates Cindy Larive on being selected by her professional peers for this well deserved award!

UCR Press Release (dated April 10, 2007)

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CEPCEB Member Xuemei Chen and IIGB Member Cheryl Hayashi Appointed 2006-07 University Scholars

Chancellor Córdova and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Ellen Wartella announced the appointment of the following University Scholars for the 2006-2007 academic year:

• Professor John Medearis: Department of Political Science
• Professor Xuemei Chen: Department of Botany & Plant Sciences
• Professor Cheryl Hayashi: Department of Biology
• Professor Gloria Gonzalez-Rivera: Department of Economics
  

The purpose of the University Scholar Award is to recognize early career tenured faculty of outstanding merit currently at UCR with title and research support for three years, thus providing an exciting opportunity to help rising stars achieve their potential. Please join us in congratulating and supporting the above awardees!

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Congratulations to 2007 Recipients of Outstanding CEPCEB Postdoctoral, Graduate Student and Undergraduate Student Awards at Fifth Annual CEPCEB Award Ceremony: February 9, 2007

The Center for Plant Cell Biology would like to congratulate the 2007 recipients of the following awards:

Outstanding CEPCEB Postdoctoral Fellow	Outstanding CEPCEB Graduate Student	Outstanding CEPCEB Undergraduate Student
TAKESHI FUKAO Botany & Plant Sciences (Mentor: J. Bailey-Serres)	XIAO-HONG WANG Plant Pathology (Mentor: S.W. Ding)	MONI BHATTACHARYA Botany & Plant Sciences (Mentor: H. Smith)

The Fifth annual CEPCEB Special Award Ceremony was held February 9, 2007 from 2-4pm in the Science Library, Room 240. Awards were presented to individuals achieving research excellence in the fields of plant cell biology, genomics, bioinformatics or engineering. The CEPCEB Awards have a monetary value of $500 each, and awardees' names are posted on the website and added to a permanent plaque inscribed with the names of the CEPCEB lecturer and awardees each year.  The Award Fund also sponsors our annual Special Seminar and Awards Ceremony where an invited leading scientist presents his or her work. In honor of one of the first supporters and members of CEPCEB, Dr. Noel Keen, this seminar is titled The Noel Keen Special Lecture. The late Dr. Keen was a founding CEPCEB member and an eminent scholar who brought considerable recognition to UCR. Recently, Dr. Keen's wife, Diana, decided to establish an endowment to help support our Special Lecture.

Dr. Bernard O. Palsson, Galetti Professor of Bioengineering and Adjunct Professor Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, was the 2007 Noel Keen Special Lecturer. Dr. Palsson is the author of over 220 peer reviewed scientific articles and the inventor of over 25 U.S. patents.  He co-authored the text TISSUE ENGINEERING, Prentice Hall in 2004, and SYSTEMS BIOLOGY, Cambridge University Press in 2006. Dr. Palsson is the recipient of the Lindbergh Tissue Engineering award in 2001, was elected into the National Academy of Engineering in 2006, received the UCSD Chancellor's Associates award in Science and Technology in 2006, and was selected as the developer of one of the most influential technologies on Biotech over the past 10 years by Nature Biotechnology (March 2006). Professor Palsson's current research at UCSD focuses on 1) the reconstruction of genome-scale biochemical reaction networks, 2) the development of mathematical analysis procedures for genome-scale models, and 3) the experimental verification of genome-scale models with current emphasis on cellular metabolism and transcriptional regulation in E. coli and Yeast.  Dr. Palsson continues our tradition of exceptional special lecturers with his seminar titled: "The Genetic Basis for Adaptation." Congratulation to this year's deserving awardees. Previous CEPCEB Awardees and Lecturers

2007 Noel Keen Special Lecturer Bernard O. Palsson

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CEPCEB Student Michelle Brown Awarded Chancellor's Distinguished Fellowship

CEPCEB student Michelle Brown has been awarded the Chancellor's Distinguished Fellowship, an award selected by the Dean of the Graduate Division and limited to the very best domestic PhD applicants with a 3.5 GPA and above and over a 1200 GRE score. Michelle was previously selected as a participant in NSF CEPCEB Research Experiences for Undergraduates program during the summers of 2004 and 2005, and has worked in the labs of CEPCEB members Kathy Borkovich, Patricia Springer and Natasha Raikhel. Our congratulations to Michelle, who has applied to the Graduate Program in Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics (GGB).

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CEPCEB Member Xuemei Chen Recipient of 2006 Charles Albert Shull Award

CEPCEP Member and Associate Professor of Plant Cell and Molecular Biology, Xuemei Chen, was awarded the Charles Albert Shull Award by the American Society of Plant Biologists for her investigation of small RNA biogenesis and the role of miRNAs in plant development. Dr. Chen was one of the first to isolate miRNAs from plants, to analyze the role of miRNAs in plant development, and to define the major players in miRNA biogenesis. The Charles Albert Shull Award of $2,000 is presented for outstanding research in plant biology by a scientist who is under 40 years of age or is less than ten years from receiving a Ph.D.

CEPCEB congratules Xuemei Chen on this prestigious award!

For more information, please visit the UCR Press Release (dated October 2, 2006).

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August 2006 Nature and The Plant Cell Papers by CEPCEB Member Julia Bailey-Serres Offers Hope of Submergence Tolerant Rice Lines for Poor Rice Farmers

Spearheaded by Dave Mackill, a rice breeder at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and in collaboration with Pam Ronald at UC Davis and CEPCEB Member Julia Bailey-Serres, a paper was published in the August issue of Nature describing the cluster of genes controlling the ability of rice plants to withstand complete submergence due to flooding. The research, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) grants, reveals the discovery of a gene that can make a rice plant survive a long period of complete submergence, thereby offering the hope of submergence-tolerant rice lines for farmers in Southeast Asia and India who live in flood-prone areas. Postdocs Kenong Xu of IRRI, Takeshi Fukao in the Bailey-Serres' lab, and Abdel Ismail, a former UCR postdoc and current IRRI researcher, were also key contributors to this research.

A second paper published in The Plant Cell by the Bailey-Serres lab in collaboration with UC Davis researchers further describes the physiological mechanism of submergence tolerance, demonstrating how potentially any variety of rice could be made to survive short-term floods.

For more information, please visit the UCR Press Release (dated August 21, 2006) and UCR Press Release (dated August 9, 2006).

Xu K, Xu X, Fukao T, Canlas P, Maghirang-Rodriguez R, Heuer S, Ismail AM, Bailey-Serres J, Ronald PC, Mackill DJ (2006) Sub1A is an Ethylene-response-factor-like Gene that Confers Submergency Tolerance to Rice. Nature 442: 705-709. [Full Text PDF]

Fukao T, Xu K, Ronald PC, and Bailey-Serres J (2006) A Variable Cluster of Ethylene Response Factor-Like Genes Regulates Metabolic and Developmental Acclimation Responses to Submergency in Rice. The Plant Cell 18: 2021-2034. [Full Text PDF]

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High-throughput Genomics Project Published in June 2006 PNAS Issue by CEPCEB Member Katherine Borkovich

Researchers from Katherine Borkovich's lab in UCR's Plant Pathology department and from Jay Dunlap's lab at Darmouth Medical School have published a landmark high-throughput genomics paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA (PNAS) in the July 2006 issue. The citation, pdf file and abstract are below:

Colot HV, Park G, Turner GE, Ringelberg C, Crew CM, Litvinkova L, Weiss RL, Borkovich KA and Dunlap JC (2006) A high-throughput gene knockout procedure for Neurospora reveals functions for multiple novel transcription factors. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103: 10352-10357.
Full Text PDF

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CEPCEB Member Thomas Eulgem Receives 2006 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research

CEPCEB Member Thomas Eulgem has been honored as the 2006 recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research for his consistently demonstrated dedication to quality education. As Assistant Director of the NSF-funded CEPCEB REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) Program, currently in its fifth year, Dr. Eulgem was instrumental in recruiting ten underrepresented students from two- and four-year colleges to participate in this year's ten-week residential research program (June 19 - August 18, 2006). He has been the creative force behind the development of lab exercises that have become popular mainstays in student workshops, and has earned the respect and admiration of his students and colleagues for his enthusiastic approach to plant cell biology research and education.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Eulgem on this special recognition.

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March 2006 Article in Science by CEPCEB Member Shou-wei Ding and Colleagues Show Fruit Flies Employ Same Defense Mechanism Against Viruses as Plants

CEPCEB member and Plant Pathologist Shou-wei Ding and colleagues have discovered that fruit flies use one of the same mechanisms as plants, RNA interference (RNAi), to defend themselves against viruses. In their article published in the March 24, 2006 issue of Science, Shou-wei Ding and colleagues reported that flies missing one of the three RNAi genes died more rapidly than normal flies when infected with two types of viruses. If, as suggested, humans also utilize the same mechanism, this study has important significance to future pharmaceutical strategies for fighting viruses.

For more information, please read "An Ointment in the Fly" in ScienceNOW.

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CEPCEB Member Stefano Lonardi Part of $5 Million USDA Research Consortium to Produce Better Barley

CEPCEB member and Computer Scientist Stefano Lonardi, along with Timothy Close from Botany & Plant Sciences, are part of a Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) of 30 scientists from 19 institutions awarded $5 million from the USDA to develop a better line of barley. As experts in single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) genotyping, UCR's barley CAP team hopes to continue developing algorithmic methods to efficiently identify genes responsible for certain traits. The goal of this national project is to provide breeders with genetic lines for producing barley with improved targeted traits, i.e., higher-yielding, better quality, disease-resistant, etc.

For more information, please visit UCR Press Release.

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CEPCEB Member Mihri Ozkan Receives Distinguished Engineering Educator Award

Mihri Ozkan, CEPCEB member and Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department, has received the Distinguished Engineering Educator Award presented by the San Fernando Valley Engineers' Council. The award honors individuals who demonstrate outstanding professional qualities with respect to engineering education and leadership, and who have significantly contributed to students' extracurricular engineering activities, and/or to scientific achievements.

Our congratulations go to Mihri for this well deserved recognition!

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CEPCEB and UCR Researchers Discover Model Organism (C. elegans) for Studying Host-virus Interactions (published in Nature, August 18, 2005)

UCR researchers have made the landmark discovery that the worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, is available as a genetic model for studying virus-host interactions. Although C. elegans has been used for years as a model system for studying many aspects of biology, it had not previously been considered useful as a model for studying viral infections since no viruses were known to infect the worm. However, UCR researchers have shown that the insect pathogen Flock house virus replicates and elicits a strong antiviral defense in this nematode host. This discovery advances researchers' understanding of virus-host interactions, and may ultimately lead to significant progress in the treatment of human viral disease. Findings were published in the August 18, 2005 issue of Nature as a collaborative work among the following UCR researchers: CEPCEB member Shou-Wei-Ding; Assistant Professor of Biology Morris Maduro; Microbiology graduate student Feng Li; postdoctoral researchers in Ding's Lab, Rui Lu and Hongwei Li; and research specialists Gina Broitman-Maduro and Wan-Xiang Li. Please read the following press releases for further information: UCR Press Release (August 17, 2005) Nature Editor's Summary (August 18, 2005

Lu R, Maduro M, Li F, Li HW, Broitman-Maduro G, Li WX and Ding SW (18 August 2005) Animal virus replication and RNAi-mediated antiviral silencing in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 436: 1040-1043. [Full Text PDF]

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CEPCEB Researchers Earn First NSF IGERT Grant for UCR ($2.9 Million)

Under principal investigator and CEPCEB member Julia Bailey-Serres, the National Science Foundation has approved funding of $2.9 million for a five-year Integrative Graduate Education and Research Trainee (IGERT) program that proposes to train 23 Ph.D. students versed in cell biology, chemistry, computational sciences and engineering in advanced chemical genomics. The project, titled "IGERT in Chemical Genomics: Forging Complementation at the Interface of Chemistry, Engineering, Computational Sciences and Cell Biology," will use chemical compounds to study the fundamental biology of cells through their effects on genes and gene products, with the potential of addressing exciting fundamental biological mechanisms with broad relevance from biotechnology to human health. In additional to Bailey-Serres, co-principal investigators include the following CEPCEB members: Natasha Raikhel, Michael Pirrung, Tao Jiang, and Jerome Schultz. UCR Press Release (dated June 30, 2005). Information regarding graduate research training opportunities in CEPCEB's ChemGen IGERT Program

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Congratulations to Thomas Girke as Recipient of 2004-05 UCR Non-Senate Distinguished Research-Instruction Award

Our congratulations are extended to Thomas Girke as recipient of the 2004-05 Non Academic Senate Distinguished Research Instruction Collaboration Award. Thomas was selected for this away due to his development of a bioinformatics infrastructure for the Center of Plant Cell Biology and most biology and biomedically-oriented departments at UC Riverside. With his outstanding contribution and expertise, scientists at UC-Riverside are now performing science on a different level.

Please visit the Bioinformatics web site for information about databases, bioinformatics tools and links to various resources.

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ChemMine: Compound Mining Database Developed by CEPCEB Member Thomas Girke Open to Public

The ChemMine Database developed by CEPCEB Member Thomas Girke and containing over two million compounds can now be accessed by the public. ChemMine is a compound mining database that facilitates drug and agrochemical discovery and chemical genomics screens. Its goal is to facilitate chemical genomics screens and to disseminate the generated knowledge. The database provides access to a wide variety of bioactive, natural and screening compounds from public and commercial providers. Their structures and functional annotations can be searched by chemical properties, substructure matches, structural similarities and biological activities. In addition to a comprehensive information retrieval system, ChemMine is also a cheminformatics service for analyzing the structural and chemical properties of lead compounds. This online service is available for compounds that are represented in the database and those provided by the user. The current set of online analysis tools includes structure-based clustering of compounds, generation of chemical descriptors, and various viewing and reformatting functionalities. To efficiently share the developed informatics resources with the community, the ChemMine project has a strong commitment to open access and open source technology.

To access the ChemMine Database, please visit: http://bioinfo.ucr.edu/projects/internal/PlantChemBase/search.php

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CEPCEB Member Stefano Lonardi Awarded Five-Year NSF CAREER Grant Involving Bioinformatics Research

CEPCEB Member Stefano Lonardi from the Computer Science and Engineering Department was awarded a five-year NSF CAREER grant for his project titled "Combinatorial Algorithms for Pattern Discovery with Applications to Data Mining and Computational Biology." This award is granted in support of the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century, and, most importantly, greatly advances bioinformatics efforts at UCR. Congratulations to Stefano on this notable achievement!

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CEPCEB Member Zhenbiao Yang's Paper in Cell (March 11, 2005) Explains Jigsaw-like Pattern in Plant Cells Contributing to Leaf Strength

Fu Y, Gu Y, Zheng Z, Wasteneys G, and Yang Z (2005) Arabidopsis Interdigitating Cell Growth Requires Two Antagonistic Pathways with Opposing Action on Cell Morphogenesis. Cell 120: 676-700. UCR Press Release (March 10, 2005) Summary: Coordinating growth and communication between adjacent cells is a critical yet poorly understood aspect of tissue development and organ morphogenesis. We report a Rho GTPase signaling network underlying the jigsaw puzzle appearance of Arabidopsis leaf pavement cells, in which localized outgrowth in one cell is coordinated with localized inhibition of outgrowth of the adjacent cell to form interdigitating lobes and indentations. Locally activated ROP2, a Rho-related GTPase from plants, activates RIC4 to promote the assembly of cortical actin microfilaments required for localized outgrowth. Meanwhile, ROP2 inactivates another target RIC1, whose activity promotes well-ordered cortical microtubules. RIC1-dependent microtubule organization not only locally inhibits outgrowth but in turn suppresses ROP2 activation in the indentation zones. Thus, outgrowth-promoting ROP2 and outgrowth-inhibiting RIC1 pathways antagonize each other. We propose that the counteractivity of these two pathways demarcates outgrowing and indenting cortical domains, coordinating a process that gives rise to interdigitations between adjacent pavement cells. Figure: A Model for ROP GTPase Control of Pavement Cell Morphogenesis Interdigitating growth in Arabidopsis leaf pavement cells is controlled by a ROP GTPase signaling network containing two counteracting pathways with opposing actions on localized cell expansion: the ROP-RIC4 pathway promotes lobe outgrowth via a fine cortical MF network, while the RIC1 pathway suppresses outgrowth via well-organized cortical MTs. We postulate that, during the initiation of lobes and indentations, these two pathways are locally activated and spatially separated, but they may subsequently counteract each other as a result of their respective self-amplification along the cell cortex. The countersignaling establishes borders that separate outgrowth-promoting from outgrowth-suppressing domains of the cell cortex. Solid arrows indicate steps supported by direct experimental evidence, and dotted arrows show hypothetical steps with some direct evidence.

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CEPCEB Member Howard Judelson Recipient of the 2004 Ruth Allen Award

CEPCEB Member Howard Judelson was recently awarded the 2004 Ruth Allen Award from the American Phytopathological Society. The Ruth Allen 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.

Our congratulations to Howard Judelson on this recognition of his contribution to the field of plant pathology!

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CEPCEB Member Mihri Ozkan Recipient of Visionary Science Award by ISBBN

CEPCEB Member Mihri Ozkan,from the Electrical Engineering and Chemical/Environmental Engineering departments, has been awarded the prestigious Visionary Science Award from the International Society for Bio-MEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology (ISBBN) for her novel work in the area of Brain-on-a chip. The award was presented in Washington, DC.

Our congratulations to Mihri Ozkan for this prestigious award!

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Natasha Raikhel Recipient of 2004 Stephen Hales Prize

Natasha Raikhel, Director of the Center for Plant Cell Biology, was awarded the 2004 Stephen Hales Prize. This annual award honors the Reverend Stephen Hales for his pioneering work in plant biology published in his 1727 book Vegetable Staticks. It is a monetary award established in 1927 for a scientist, whether or not a member of the Society, who has served the science of plant biology in some noteworthy manner.

Please join us in congratulating Natasha Raikhel for this prestigious award!

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CEPCEB Member Katherine Borkovich First Author in MMBR Article that Analyzes over 1,100 genes of fungus Neurospora crassa (March 2004)

CEPCEB Member Katherine Borkovich is first author on a review article (108 pages) titled "Lessons from the Genomic Sequence of Neurospora crassa: Tracing the Path from Genomic Blueprint to Multicellular Organism," published in the March 2004 issue of Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews (MMBR)*. This review provides an in-depth analysis of over 1,100 genes in the Neurospora crassa genome sequence.

Katherine A. Borkovich, Lisa A. Alex, Oded Yarden, Michael Freitag, Gloria E. Turner, Nick D. Read, Stephan Seiler, Deborah Bell-Pedersen, John Paietta, Nora Plesofsky, Michael Plamann, Marta Goodrich-Tanrikulu, Ulrich Schulte, Gertrud Mannhaupt, Frank E. Nargang, Alan Radford, Claude Selitrennikoff, James E. Galagan, Jay C. Dunlap, Jennifer J. Loros, David Catcheside, Hirokazu Inoue, Rodolfo Aramayo, Michael Polymenis, Eric U. Selker, Matthew S. Sachs, George A. Marzluf, Ian Paulsen, Rowland Davis, Daniel J. Ebbole, Alex Zelter, Eric R. Kalkman, Rebecca O'Rourke, Frederick Bowring, Jane Yeadon, Chizu Ishii, Keiichiro Suzuki, Wataru Sakai, and Robert Pratt (2004)
Lessons from the Genome Sequence of Neurospora crassa: Tracing the Path from Genomic Blueprint to Multicellular Organism. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 68: 1-108.

Abstract
We present an analysis of over 1,100 of the 10,000 predicted proteins encoded by the genome sequence of the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa. Seven major areas of Neurospora genomics and biology are covered. First, the basic features of the genome, including the automated assembly, gene calls, and global gene analyses are summarized. The second section covers components of the centromere and kinetochore complexes, chromatin assembly and modification, and transcription and translation initiation factors. The third area discusses genome defense mechanisms, including repeat induced point mutation, quelling and meiotic silencing, and DNA repair and recombination. In the fourth section, topics relevant to metabolism and transport include extracellular digestion; membrane transporters; aspects of carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, and lipid metabolism; the mitochondrion and energy metabolism; the proteasome; and protein glycosylation, secretion, and endocytosis. Environmental sensing is the focus of the fifth section with a treatment of two-component systems; GTP-binding proteins; mitogen-activated protein, p21-activated, and germinal center kinases; calcium signaling; protein phosphatases; photobiology; circadian rhythms; and heat shock and stress responses. The sixth area of analysis is growth and development; it encompasses cell wall synthesis, proteins important for hyphal polarity, cytoskeletal components, the cyclin/cyclin-dependent kinase machinery, macroconidiation, meiosis, and the sexual cycle. The seventh section covers topics relevant to animal and plant pathogenesis and human disease. The results demonstrate that a large proportion of Neurospora genes do not have homologues in the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. The group of unshared genes includes potential new targets for antifungals as well as loci implicated in human and plant physiology and disease.

*A journal's impact factor is is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year or period and is one of the quantitative tools for ranking, evaluating, categorizing, and comparing journals. MMBR's impact factor is ranked #1 out of 82 journals in the Microbiology category.

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CEPCEB Member Elizabeth Lord's PNAS Paper (December 2003) Identifies Plant Reproduction Protein

CEPCEB Member Elizabeth Lord's lab has identified a protein that helps guide sperm to the egg in flowering lily plants, and their results are to be published in a paper titled “Chemocyanin, a Small, Basic Protein from the Lily Stigma, Induces Pollen Tube Chemotropism” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The importance of understanding how plants reproduce is enormous for the future manipulation of crop and nursery plants. There is a huge flower industry in California and little is known about how seed set occurs in flowering plants. Elizabeth's Lord's lab does research on the mechanisms of seed production and have attempted to discover how pollen tubes, which carry sperm cells, are guided to the egg cell in the ovary. Their discovery of a protein from the pistil which acts to guide pollen tubes to the egg cell is a first for flowering plants. Insemination begins when pollen grains land on the stigma, the tip of the female reproductive organ. There the grains germinate and form a pollen tube that carries sperm cells to the ovary, where the egg-containing ovules reside. Botanists have long known that the female organs play a role in guiding pollen tubes to the ovules, but the molecular mechanism was unknown. Elizabeth Lord and colleagues used biochemical methods to identify chemocyanin as the protein that guides pollen tube growth on the large lily stigma. Chemocyanin belongs to a family of proteins called plantacyanins, which have unknown functions, but are found in the cell walls of many plant species. Lord's team found that chemocyanin's effect on lily pollen tube guidance is species-specific because it does not attract tobacco pollen tubes. Chemocyanin was more effective when another cell wall protein called SCA was present. Identification of these two and other similar peptides may unlock the network of signals involved in plant reproduction. Full Text PDF UCR Press Release (December 9, 2003)

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CEPCEB Small Research Grants Awarded for Microscopy and Imaging

The Center for Plant Cell Biology awarded two seed grants of $2,000 to the following recipients for projects using the Microscopy and Imaging resources in the core facility:

These grants will be administered as a 12-month line of credit to be spent at the CEPCEB core facility on billable equipment. The following equipment is available:

• Leica SP2 UV confocal microscope with 9 laser lines and spectral detection
• Meridian InSight ocular viewing confocal with Ar and Kr lasers and Hamamatsu C4880 camera
• Atto Pathway HT fully automated confocal imaging system, now with montage capability
• Leica MZIII fluorescence stereo scopes with Combi turret, SPOT b/w and JVC color cameras
• MCID Elite image analysis system with motorized Zeiss Axiovert microscope
• Photonic Microsystems pulsed laser on a motorized laser ablation microscope platform
• Leica Ultracut T with EM FCS cryo unit for preparing TEM samples (Expert users only)
• Sorvall MT 6000 ultramicrotome for preparing TEM samples
• EMS 5000 oscillating tissue slicer for live tissue sectioning under water
• Hacker 5030 microtome for routine plastic and wax histological sectioning
• Microm HM500 OMV motorized cryostat with "vacutome" feature for cutting flat cryosections
• BioRad PDS1000/He Biolistic gene gun with Hepta adaptor for wide area coverage

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Paper Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) June 10, 2003 Issue by Raikhel Lab

Research funded by the National Science Foundation to show that plants use unique mechanisms to process and degrade proteins was recently published in the June 10, 2003 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Authors of this manuscript are Natasha Raikhel and the following members of her research laboratory: Enrique Rojo, Jan Zouhar, Clay Carter and Valentina Kovaleva.

91. Rojo E, Zouhar J, Carter C, Kovaleva V, Raikhel NV (2003) A Unique Mechanism for Protein Processing and Degradation in Arabidopsis Thaliana. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100: 7389-7394.

Abstract:
Precursor protease vesicles are plant-specific compartments containing precursors of enzymes that are thought to participate in the degradation of cellular components in organs undergoing senescence. We report in vivo evidence that the precursor protease vesicle-localized vacuolar processing enzyme-γ (VPEγ) is critical for maturation of the plant vacuolar protease AtCPY. We also provide biochemical and functional evidence that VPEγ is involved in degradation of the vacuolar invertase AtFruct4 in aging tissues. Moreover, a proteomics-based approach identified various proteins found in the vacuoles of aging vpeγ mutants but not in WT plants, suggesting a unique role of VPEγ in protein processing and degradation in Arabidopsis.

Please see UCR Press Release (June 5, 2003)

Full Text PDF

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June 2003 Special Issue of Plant Physiology Has Significant CEPCEB Contributions

The June 2003 issue of Plant Physiology contains significant contributions made by CEPCEB faculty and staff. Subtitled "Arabidopsis Special Issue: Plant Systems Biology," the issue is one of the first publications devoted to systems-based research - the new multidisciplinary, computational approach for addressing biological issues and the wave of the future in plant biology. In addition to this innovative emphasis, the issue also bears the following UCR contributions: 1) The Center for Plant Cell Biology (CEPCEB) Director Natasha Raikhel and CEPCEB member Zhenbiao Yang from Botany & Plant Sciences organized the 22nd Symposium in Plant Biology held on January 15-18, 2003 at the Riverside Convention Center. A report highlighting this international meeting, entitled "Frontiers of Plant Cell Biology: Signals and Pathways, System-Based Approaches 22nd Symposium in Plant Biology (University of California-Riverside)" is located on pages 428-435. Full Text PDF 2) The "Editor's Choice" article is a summary report written with the assistance of participants at a DOE workshop held at the Mission Inn on January 19, 2003, the day after the 22nd Symposium in Plant Biology. The report entitled "Achieving the in Silico Plant. Systems Biology and the Future of Plant Biological Research" can be found on pages 404-409. Full Text PDF 3) The first article of the issue, listed under "Perspectives on Systems Biology," is a collaborative effort among CEPCEB members from Botany & Plant Sciences (Thomas Girke, David Carter and Natasha Raikhel) and Electrical Engineering (Mihri Ozkan). This lead article, titled "Towards a Modeling Infrastructure for Studying Plant Cells" is located on pages 410-414. Full Text PDF 4) The cover of the issue was designed and developed by Jocelyn Brimo, a CEPCEB staff member and assistant to Natasha Raikhel. The editorial for the issue was co-authored by Raikhel. Full Text PDF

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CEPCEB Member Katherine Borkovich was the third author and first non-sequencing center author on a paper published in the April 24, 2003 issue of Nature titled "The genome sequence of the filmentous fungus Neorospora crassa."

Galagan JE, Calvo SE, Borkovich KA, Selker EU, Read ND, Jaffe D, FitzHugh W, Ma, LJ, Smirnov S, Purcell S, Rehman B, Elkins T, Engels R, Wang S, Nielsen CB, Butler J, Endrizzi M, Qui D, Ianakiev P, Bell-Pedersen D, Nelson MA, Werner-Washburne M, Selitrennikoff CP, Kinsey JA, Braun EL, Zelter A, Schulte U, Kothe GO, Jeff G, Mewes W, Staben C, Marcotte E, Greenberg D, Roy A, Foley K, naylor J, Stange-Thomann N, Barrett R, Gnerre S, Kamal M, Kamvysselis M, Mauceli E, Bielke C, Rudd S, Frishman D, Krystofova S, Rasmussen C, Metzenberg RL, Perkins DD, Kroken S, Cogoni C, Macino G, Catcheside D, Li W, Pratt RJ, Osmani SA, DeSouza CPC, Glass L, Orbach MJ, Berglund JA, Voelker R, Yarden O, Plamann M, Seiler S, Dunlap J, Radford A, Aramayo R, Natvig DO, Alex LA, Mannhaupt G, Ebbole DJ, Freitag M, Paulsen I, Sachs MS, Lander ES, Nusbaum C, Birren B. (2003) The genome sequence of the filamentous fungus Neorospora crassa. Nature: 422: 859-868.

Abstract:
Neorospora crassa is a central organism in the history of twentieth-century genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology. Here, we report a high-quality draft sequence of the N. crassa genome. The approximately 40-megabase genome encodes about 10,000 protein-coding genes — more than twice as many as in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe and only about 25% fewer than in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster. Analysis of the gene set yields insights into unexpected aspects of Neurospora biology including the identification of genes potentially associated with red light photobiology, genes implicated in secondary metabolism, and important differences in Ca2+ signalling as compared with plants and animals. Neurospora possesses the widest array of genome defence mechanisms known for any eukaryotic organism, including a process unique to fungi called repeat-induced point mutation (RIP). Genome analysis suggests that RIP has had a profound impact on genome evolution, greatly slowing the creation of new genes through genomic duplication and resulting in a genome with an unusually low proportion of closely related genes.

Full Text PDF

News Feature Article titled "Revelations from a bread mould" by Jonathan Arnold and Nelson Hilton (PDF)

The Center for Plant Cell Biology congratulates Katherine Borkovich on this landmark paper!

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CEPCEB Paper (Zhenbiao Yang, Ying Fu) Selected as Fast Breaking by ISI Essential Science Indicators™

ISI Essential Science Indicators™ list the top 1% highly-cited papers in 22 broad field of science each year from 1992-2002. The lists are updated every two months, and for the fifth to sixth bimonthly period of 2002, an article by CEPCEB member Zhenbiao Yang and Dr. Ying Fu was selected as one of 12 Fast Breaking Papers with the highest percentage increase in citations, representing the field of Plant and Animal Science. These papers are noted (http://www.esi-topics.com/fbp/fbp-april2003.html) because they "represent very recent scientific contributions that are just beginning to attract the attention of the scientific community." The paper is titled "The ROP2 GTPase controls the formation of cortical fine F-actin and the early phase of directional cell expansion during Arabidopsis organogenesis."

Please visit: http://www.esi-topics.com/fbp/fbp-april2003.html.

Our congratulations to Drs. Zhenbiao Yang and Ying Fu for this remarkable achievement!

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Research Funded by U.S. Department of Energy

The University of California was awarded over $73 million in fiscal year 2001 by the U.S. Department of Energy for research on a variety of topics, including plant research. One of the recipients of DOE funding is CEPCEB Member Zhenbiao Yang for his research on signal transduction in Arabidopsis. According to Yang, "Our results may soon help enhance the productivity of crops that undergo transient submergence or soil waterlogging."

For information on DOE-funded research in the University of California and on Zhenbiao Yang's studies in particular (page 7), please read "A Report on the Department of Energy at the University of California."

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Natasha Raikhel: Recipient of ASCB Women in Cell Biology Senior Career Recognition Award

Natasha Raikhel, Director of the Center for Plant Cell Biology (CEPCEB), has been awarded the 2002 Senior Career Recognition Award of the Women in Cell Biology Committee of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). This honor, awarded by peers, recognizes her outstanding scientific achievements coupled with a long-standing record of mentoring both men and women in scientific careers. Natasha received this Award at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the ASCB, December 14-18, 2002.

The Center for Plant Cell Biology congratulates Natasha on this prestigious honor.

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Shou-Wei Ding's Paper Published in Science Magazine (May 2002)

Induction and Suppression of RNA Silencing by an Animal Virus Hongwei Li, Wan Xiang Li, Shou Wei Ding* Department of Plant Pathology and Center for Plant Cell Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA. * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: shou-wei.ding@ucr.edu Full Text PDF   The cover of the May 2002 issue of Science Magazine features the work of CEPCEB Member Shou-Wei Ding's paper devoted to induction and suppression of RNA silencing by an animal virus. RNA silencing is a sequence-specific RNA degradation mechanism operational in plants and animals. Shou-Wei and his colleagues show that flock house virus (FHV) is both an initiator and target of RNA silencing in Drosophila host cells and that FHV infection requires suppression of RNA silencing by an FHV-encoded protein, B2. These findings establish RNA silencing as a novel adaptive antiviral defense in animal cells. B2 also inhibits RNA silencing in transgenic plants, providing the first experimental evidence for a conserved RNA silencing pathway in plant and animal kingdoms. Science Cover: COVER RNA silencing of green fluorescent protein (GFP) (center) in leaves from Nicotiana benthamiana is suppressed by an animal (left; B2 protein of flock house virus) or a plant (right) viral suppressor, leading to enhanced GFP expression (lighter green/yellow areas). [Image: Shou-Wei Ding]

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Collaborative Work of Three CEPCEB Members Published in Science Magazine (June 2002)

RopGAP4-Dependent Rop GTPase Rheostat Control of Arabidopsis Oxygen Deprivation Tolerance
Airica Baxter-Burrell, Zhenbiao Yang, Patricia S. Springer, and Julia Bailey-Serres*
Center for Plant Cell Biology, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: serres@mail.ucr.edu
Full Text PDF

The collaborative work of three CEPCEB members (Julia Bailey-Serres, Zhenbiao Yang and Patricia Sprin