Plant metabolism

A new Plant Physiology paper, authored by UC Davis plant scientists Ella Katz, Dan Kliebenstein, and undergrads Alycia Rasmussen and Aleshia Hooper, was featured as ‘Plant Physiology Article of the Week’ in The Signal, a weekly publication of the American Society of Plant Biologists.

Professors Cameron Carter, School of Medicine, and Li Tian, Department of Plant Sciences, are co-directors of the Cannabis and Hemp Research Center at UC Davis. The center will guide and support cannabis- and hemp-related research across UC Davis.

To fill a critical need in the fast-growing hemp industry, the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center completed a two-day course on Hemp Breeding and Seed Production, with 165 professionals attending from the U.S., Argentina, Canada, Israel, Netherlands and New Zealand.

John Yoder, Plant Sciences, UC Davis, participated in an academic panel at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Exposition. The panel addressed the plant science, public policy, law, and student education aspects of cannabis. Yoder shared UC Davis’ strengths in the genetics, biochemistry, and how cannabis and hemp plants grow. VIDEO included.

UC Davis Plant Sciences professor emeritus John Labavitch, who taught countless students about plant development, fruit ripening, and cell walls, and who was well-known and respected for his research, passed away on September 24, 2019.

Mitochondria in cells generate energy for the cell and play roles in metabolism and programmed cell death. Not all mitochondria are the same — plant mitochondria are quite different from animal mitochondria. New research from the UC Davis Genome Center and partnering universities shows just how different.

Brassica plants, such as broccoli, produce metabolites that benefit humans (flavor, anti-cancer defenses), benefit the plant (attacking insects) and, in new research, defend against drought. Dan Kliebenstein’s lab examines drought tolerance in Arabidopsis.

Philip Day, Steven Theg, and the late Kentaro Inoue, all UC Davis, determined how β-barrel proteins are sorted in plant chloroplast envelopes. Chloroplasts, which are responsible for photosynthesis in plants, evolved about a billion years ago from an ancient endosymbiotic relationship between a cyanobacteria species and a eukaryotic cell.

UC Davis researchers have partnered with a federally compliant pharmaceutical company to analyze the chemical and biological profiles of cannabis for the benefit of law enforcement, health care providers, and scientific professionals. A Cannabis and Hemp Research Center is also being established at UC Davis.

Dr. John E. Boynton, a UC Davis alumnus, retired Duke University professor, and renowned expert on photosynthesis, has bequeathed a generous gift from his estate to establish a Ph.D. graduate student fellowship at UC Davis in honor of his mentor, UC Davis tomato geneticist Charles M. Rick, Jr.