Summary
Research interests
- Improving sustainable cactus pear (Opuntia spp.) productivity for bioenergy production under hot and arid conditions by leveraging rhizosphere microbial consortia. The overall goal of this project is to understand and improve the high biomass productivity of cactus pear (Opuntia spp.), making it an excellent bioenergy feedstock for sustainable biomass production under hot and arid conditions. We are investigating the genetic mechanisms underlying the biomass production efficiency of cactus pear as a sustainable, heat- and drought-tolerant, and water-wise bioenergy feedstock. The project will also use systems biology-enabled investigations into the role of rhizosphere microbial consortia or communities that enable increased rates of growth and biomass production. The overall impact of this project will be to improve the biomass productivity of cactus pear and resource-use efficiency by leveraging beneficial plant-microbe interactions making it an excellent bioenergy feedstock for sustainable biomass production under hot and dry environmental conditions where nearly no other crop can be grown whether for bioenergy or human food or animal feed.
- Optimized crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) engineering for improving water-use efficiency in plants: Crassulacean acid metabolism and tissue succulence are metabolic and anatomical adaptations that improve water-use efficiency and drought (and salinity) stress tolerance in plants. These traits are among the most widespread and successful adaptations in the plant kingdom for mitigating drought stress, and thus, represent highly useful traits for the design of climate-resilient crops. The goal of this project is to test optimized synthetic versions of crassulacean acid metabolism alone and in combination with engineered tissue succulence. The proposed synthetic gene circuits developed by this project can be applied widely to other food, feed, fiber, and biofuel crops to improve their productivity, reduce photorespiration, improve water-use efficiency, and drought/salinity stress tolerance under the hotter and drier environments of the future.
- Unraveling the origin of vegetative desiccation tolerance in vascular plants. Excessive water loss is lethal for most plants, but a minority of plants (known as resurrection plants) evolved the remarkable ability to survive almost complete dryness. This ability, known as desiccation tolerance (DT), relies upon a combination of physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses that allow the plant to preserve cell integrity in the dry state. The long-term goal of this project is to determine the regulatory networks controlling VDT and infer its origins during vascular plant evolution by analyzing the DT response of key resurrection lineages using integrative methodologies including global transcriptional changes in vegetative and reproductive tissues during the DT process, global metabolic changes in vegetative and reproductive tissues during DT process, in situ and single-cell type kinetic analysis of transcriptional and metabolomic changes of vegetative tissues during dehydration and recovery, and comparative analyses of regulatory networks controlling DT in resurrection plants.
Our research is funded by the US Department of Energy, Western Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) program, and the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station (NAES).
Students and postdoctoral research associates with broad interests in plant molecular genetics, plant biochemistry, and synthetic biology related to abiotic stress tolerance and food, feed, and biofuel production systems are welcome to pursue training opportunities in this laboratory.
Courses
- BCH/JOUR 496/696 - Scientific Communication Masterclass
- BCH 703 - Grant Writing for Molecular Biosciences
- BCH 705 - Molecular Genetics
- BCH 706 - Functional Genomics
- BCH 718 - Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
- BCH 794 - Plant Biochemistry Colloquium
Honors and awards
- 2022 AAAS Fellow
- 2017 Regents' Researcher Award
- 2013 ASPB Fellow
- 2013 Outstanding UNR Researcher Award
- 2011-2013 Foundation Professor
- 2003 Outstanding CABNR Researcher Award
Service
Guest editor, Annals of Botany; Handling Editor, Journal of Plant Physiology; Associate Editor, Journal of the Professional Association for Cactus Development;
Education
B.S. 1982 Ursinus College
M.S. 1984 Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Ph.D. 1986 Rutgers University-New Brunswick