News

The UC Davis community continues to mourn the death of Trisha “Tris” Nicole Sabay Yasay, a junior in the Department of Plant Sciences. We send our deep condolences to her family. She is remembered by her friends and colleagues in plant sciences and by the campus community for her vision, energy and enthusiasm for taking what she was learning at UC Davis and using it to better the world.

Louise Ferguson and fellow editors have published a new book in CABI’s speciality crop series about fig cultivation, management, harvesting and marketing. The Fig: Botany, Production and Uses also includes a fascinating review of the historical, cultural, nutritional and economic significance of this storied fruit, ranging from references in holy scriptures to the global market structure for exports and imports.

Jorge Dubcovsky and researchers in his lab have been recognized for providing basic genetic information about wheat and improved germplasm that is being used by scientists around the world to improve “the staff of life.” Those efforts are bringing new varieties of wheat to farmers adapting to new conditions. For his leadership in those efforts, Dubcovsky was awarded the Frank N. Meyer Medal for Plant Genetic Resources, and a $2,000 prize, at the recent annual meeting of the Crop Science Society of America.

Isha Poudel has been awarded a fellowship by the American Association of University Women. Poudel is a second-year master’s student in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences majoring in international agricultural development, with a focus on gender equities and disaster resiliency in food systems. She is in Amanda Crump’s research lab group that focuses on agricultural equity and social inclusion.

The AAUW award will support Poudel in her graduate education and further advance her research project in Nepal.

E. Charles Brummer has been honored for bettering alfalfa science and cultivation by the North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference. Brummer, a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, is the director of the UC Davis Plant Breeding Center and involved in researching a wide range of crops for forage, grain and fiber.

Trees in our towns give us shade and relief from the heat, but how long can they keep that up as our climate warms and water becomes scarcer? Scientists at UC Davis are figuring that out and hope to create guides for homeowners, landscapers, nursery managers, parklands officials, urban planners and others trying to preserve islands of refuge within our hot-and-hotter urban centers.

Plant pathologist Paul G. Smith, the founder of pepper genetics and a retired professor at UC Davis, has been recognized for a lifetime of contributions that continue to shape plant sciences today.

Smith was a professor in the former UC Davis Department of Vegetable Crops, one of four departments that merged to become the current Department of Plant Sciences. His contributions were recognized at the recent 25th International Pepper Conference in Tucson, Ariz.

When UC Davis recruiters visit high schools and community colleges, they have new reasons to encourage students who might not usually think of college. The Department of Plant Sciences Multicultural Scholars Program now offers financial support to California students from under-represented communities to help them pursue a career in the field.

Maeli Melotto and her team at the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences are looking for strains of lettuce that are genetically stronger at resisting bacteria that can make people sick. Their work has led to the identification of a gene that could play a role in the plant’s susceptibility to E. coli, a bacterium that causes potentially lethal intestinal illness.

Giulia Marino is looking at some promising new varieties of pistachio trees to help growers facing warmer winters, reduced water quantity and quality, and rising management costs.  As the new University of California Presidential Chair for Tree Nut Genetics, Marino’s work will help farmers in the state’s $5-billion-and-growing industry become more resilient and more profitable.

Gail Taylor and her team at the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences are looking for the genetic keys to making America’s favorite leafy green stay fresher, longer, in the fridge.

Taylor and members of the Taylor Lab have found regions on the lettuce genome related to the tiny details of how lettuce leaves are built – structure that can make a leaf more or less hospitable to bacteria. They’ve also found genetic regions related to the plant’s ability to resist bacteria from getting in at all.

Leslie Roche and fellow members of a seven-state team were recently honored with a Partnership Award for Multi-State Efforts, conferred by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Albert Fischer, a professor emeritus of weed ecophysiology in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, was recently named recipient of the Outstanding International Achievement Award by the International Weed Science Society.

Shortly after the award was announced, Fischer passed away on Nov. 22 in Davis, Calif. He was 72. Former student Whitney Brim-DeForest accepted the award on Fischer’s behalf at the society’s quadrennial meeting Dec. 8 in Bangkok.

Due to severe water shortages, rice acres planted in California plummeted by 37 percent from 2021 to 2022, according to numbers released recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service. But now, thanks to University of California researchers, growers have a new tool they could potentially use to cope with droughts and other environmental and socioeconomic changes.

A multi-state team led by Patrick J. Brown has been awarded nearly $3.8 million over the next four years for a project to improve pistachio production as the industry faces warmer winters and scarcer water.

“We are at this unique point in history where we can do this,” said Brown, an associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences.