plant sciences quarterly · ph.d., plant breeding and genetics, 2006, cornell university advisor:...

As we welcome a new year and prepare to begin the spring semester, preparations are being made to interview candidates for a new research and teaching position as assistant/associate/full professor in Plant Stress Biology. Bob Sharp is leading the search process. This F21C-funded position can be instrumental in further advancing our divi-sion in this area of current strength. Considering NIFA’s shift toward larger, highly collaborative programs I believe that identifying and building our capacity in areas such as this one can contribute to success in funding our research programs.

Susan was busy between semesters organizing and overseeing some facilities improvements that I believe will create a better learning en-vironment for our students. A key aspect of this effort will lead to significant improve-ments in Room 200 in Waters Hall when everything is finished. The goal is a classroom equipped with modern technology that can accommodate 50 students.

One of our BS graduates from 1980, Bill Ruppert, is highlighted in the “Know Your Colleagues” section. Bill is located in the St Louis area and was instrumental in orga-nizing a recent series of visits by undergraduate students, most from Plant Sciences, before we gathered for an alumni reception that evening. Take a look at page 5 for more. Plant Sciences undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty continue to receive important honors that confirm the strength of our people and programs. You can see more on pages 2 & 3. Please welcome Dr. Jason Gillman, who recently joined the ARS Plant Genetics Research Unit in the role of Research Geneticist. Jason will be located in Waters Hall.

INSIDE This Issue

2-3Awards & Honors

FROM THE DIVISION DIRECTOR

Mike Collins

Volume 4 Issue 1Winter 2011

Division of Plant SciencesCollege of Agriculture, Food and Natural ResourcesUniversity of Missouri

3-4Programs & People

5Around the Division

6Events &Activities

7Recent Grants

8Recent Publications

Plant SciencesQuarterly

Plant Sciences Quarterly is produced by Kate Riley and Tonya Mueller andcopyedited by Craig Roberts.

University of Missouri, Division of Plant Sciences, Columbia, MO 65211 • http://plantsci.missouri.edu/

2 Awards & Honors

The marshals were selected based on their academic performance and their contributions to graduate education at MU. This year’s Doctoral marshal was Roland Holou of the Plant, Insect and Microbial Sci-ences program hooded by his faculty advisors, Gene Stevens and William Folk. Those chosen were hon-ored with a Marshal sash, were recognized in the Commencement Bulletin and were the first of those degree candidates to enter the arena floor during the Graduate School Commencement ceremony.

Holou named Doctoral Marshal for Graduate School Commencement ceremony

Walter Gassmann, Associate Professor in Plant Sciences, was the recipient of the 2010 Excellence Award from the Interdisciplinary Plant Group. The award acknowledges distinguished contributions to the study of interdisciplinary research in plant biology at MU.

Gassmann was chosen to receive the award for his exceptional efforts in the development, implementa-tion, and success of the IPG graduate curriculum and in recognition of his support of the interdisciplinary study of plant biology. This is the first year the award has been offered.

“Dr. Gassmann is a natural choice to be the first recipient of the IPG Excellence Award,” said John Walk-er, director of the Interdisciplinary Plant Group and Professor of Biological Sciences. “He is an excellent colleague, and for ten years he has been an invaluable member of the IPG who has generously shared his time, resources, and tremendous expertise with other faculty, students, and postdocs on campus.”

Gassmann awarded Interdisciplinary Plant Group Excellence Award

Rob Kallenbach was awarded “Grasslander of the Year” by the Missouri Forage and Grassland Council, 2010. The award is given to an individual each year who has made outstanding contributions to the stewardship of grasslands in Missouri.

Kallenbach awarded Grasslander of the Year

Four graduate students and one undergraduate were successful in the student com-petition at the Entomological Society of America’s (ESA) annual conference held in San Diego, CA, December 12-15, 2010. Winners received a free one-year member-ship in ESA, a $70 cash prize and a certificate. Runner-ups received certificates.

Elizabeth Long of Debbie Finke’s Lab won in the Plant Insect Ecosystems: Vectors of Plant Diseases category of the Graduate Student Ten-Minute Paper Competition. Her topic was “Predator diversity impacts herbivore abundance and distribution: conse-quences for a vector-borne plant pathogen.” MU had three Poster competition win-ners. Qian Wang of Qisheng Song’s lab won with a poster entitled, “Role of bursicon in larvae stage.” She placed first in the Integrated Physiological and Molecular Insect

systems: II section. Richard Houseman’s graduate student, Paul Botch, won in the Medical, Urban and Veterinary Entomology: Session I. Paul’s poster was entitled, “Historical landscape influence on subterranean termite (Isoptera: Reticulitermes) infesta-tion frequencies in subdivisions.” The final poster winner was Aaron Mbogo of Bob Sites’ lab. He won in the Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity: Biodiversity, Surveys, Conservation Section for his poster entitled, “Taxonomic composition and distribution of creeping water bugs (Heteroptera: Naucoroidea) of Tanzania.” James Pflug of Bob Sites’ lab was runner-up in Section I of the undergraduate poster competition. His poster was entitled, “A phylogeny of Naucoridae (Heteroptera) using whole mitochondrial genomes.”

Plant Science Students win President’s Prize at ESA Conference

Front Row: (l-r) Qian Wang, Elizabeth Long Back Row: (l-r) James Pflug,

Aaron Mbogho, and Paul Botch


Programs & People

Dr. Lee Miller and his wife, Robin, welcomed their first child December 1, 2010. Their daughter, Madeleine Noelle Miller was born at Boone Hospital and weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz.

Luke Maxwell Mitchum was born on November 1, 2010 at Boone Hospital to Dr. Me-lissa Mitchum and her husband Brian. He weighed 7lbs. 4 oz. and 21.5 inches long. Jacob, 3, is the proud big brother.

New Additions to the Miller & Mitchum Families

Luke Maxwell MitchumMadeleine Noelle Miller

The Missouri Turf and Ornamental Council in conjunction with the Lobenstein Scholar-ship Fund awarded a $1000 scholarship to Staci Hentges and Jacob Hueste. The Loben-stein Scholarship is available to any University of Missouri junior or senior level student studying in the fields of Horticulture, Turfgrass Management or Agronomy. Staci is a junior from Centertown, MO majoring in Landscape Design and Jacob is a senior from Camden-ton, MO majoring in Plant Science.

Hentges and Hueste awarded scholarships

Michelle Folta and John Smeda were awarded scholarships by the Western Seed Association and were recognized at the annual banquet held November 8, 2010 in Kansas City, MO. Both are seniors with an emphasis in Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology.

Folta & Smeda awarded scholarships

Kate Riley will be going on mater-nity leave for the month of February and the beginning of March. If she is currently working on any projects for you that can not wait until her return please contact Tonya Mueller at [email protected].

Riley on Maternity Leave Soon

Kate Riley

3 Awards & Honors

John Haguewood, an M.S. candidate, received second place in the poster competition at the North Central Weed Science Society meeting which took place December 13-16, 2010 in Lexington, KY. John’s poster was entitled, “Management of Annual Bluegrass with Bispyribac Sodium on Creeping Bentgrass.” Reid Smeda and Xi Xiong are his co-advisers.

Haguewood awarded second place in poster competition

Enzhan (Steve) Song, second year graduate student, was awarded the “Dave Fearis Scholarship” by the Heart of America Golf Course

Superintendents Association on December 14th, 2010. The Scholarship Program offers educational aid to students in the turf-grass program at an accredited college or university in Kansas or Missouri.

Song awarded scholarship


Dr. Christopher (Chris) Frost Ph.D., Ecology, 2005, University of Georgia • Advisor: Mark D. HunterPostdocs: Pennsylvania State University with Jack Schultz (2005-2007) and John E. Carlson (2007-2010)Current Position: Assistant Research Scientist, School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia. Dr. Frost’s research interests in plant stress lie in understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating plant dynamic defense responses (i.e., plasticity) in response to herbivore, air pollution, and drought stressors by the application of functional genomics and metabolomic approaches. He has primarily used the model plant Poplar for his research.Arrives: Sun. Feb. 13 • Seminar: Mon. Feb. 14 (3.30 pm)Departs: Afternoon of Tues. Feb. 15

4 Programs & People

Assistant/Associate/Full Professor Position in Plant Stress BiologyCandidates have been reviewed and considered. Below are a few of the possible candidates for the Plant Stress Biology position.

Dr. Jason Gillman has joined the ARS Plant Genetics Research Unit as a Research Geneticist (Plants). Jason received his PhD from Cornell University in 2008 under the mentorship of Professor Maureen Hanson. He spent the last two years working with Kristin Bilyeu as a Postdoctoral Fellow on several projects related to seed quality issues in soybean. Jason will remain in the soybean group and will be developing his own research program. His office is 7 Waters Hall and lab is 33 West Mumford Hall.

Gillman to join Plant Sciences

The Fall 2010 edition of Illumination Magazine features an article “Lair of the Roundworm” writ-ten by Melody Kroll highlighting research being conducted by the Division of Plant Sciences Soy-bean Cyst Nematode research team; Drs. Allen Wrather, Melissa Mitchum, Grover Shannon, Dave Sleper, and Henry Nguyen. You can read the article at http://illumination.missouri.edu/.

Lair of the Roundworm Article featured in Illumination Magazine

The university is implementing an annual pass-word reset due to industry standards and in-ternal audits. This reset will only be mandatory for university faculty and staff and will run from February 1 to April 18. If you do not make a sig-nificant password change during that time frame your password will automatically be changed by the Department of IT and you will be unable to logon to computers, check email or access any internal website that uses your pawprint and password for authentication. Don’t forget to set your new passwords on any mobile devices so that you continue to get email and calendar re-minders. Passwords can be changed at this web-site: http://doit.missouri.edu/accounts/ Select the “Password Manager” link on the right.

Forced PasswordReset

Dr. Anjali S. Iyer-PascuzziPh.D., Plant Breeding and Genetics, 2006, Cornell UniversityAdvisor: Susan R. McCouchPostdoc/Current Position: Department of Biology and Center for Systems Biology, Duke University. Dr. Iyer-Pascuzzi’s research interests in plant stress lie in understanding the regu-latory networks that underlie root responses to acid stress by the application of systems and genomics approaches and a novel imaging system for studying root architecture. She uses both rice and Arabidopsis as model systems for her studies. Arrives: Tues. Feb. 15 • Seminar: Wed. Feb. 16 (3.30 pm)Departs: Afternoon of Thurs. Feb. 17

Dr. David G. Mendoza-CozatlPh.D., Biochemistry, 2005, National Autonomous University of Mexico Advisor: Rafael Moreno-SanchezPostdoc/Current Position: University of California-San Diego.Dr. Mendoza-Cozatl’s research interests in plant stress are focused on glutathi-one metabolism and mechanisms of heavy metal tolerance, toxicity, and accumu-lation in plants by the application of biochemistry, molecular biology, and systems biology approaches. He uses Arabidopsis as a model system for his research.Arrives: Tues. Feb. 22 • Seminar: Wed. Feb. 23 (3.30 pm) Departs: Afternoon of Thurs. Feb. 24


KNOW YOUR ALUMNUS: Bill Ruppert

5 Around the Division

Bill Ruppert, BS AG 1980, acquired an interest in native Missouri plants during his involvement with development of the Woodland and Floral Gardens, a mini botanic garden formerly located

on the MU campus near the Agriculture Building. During the garden’s design phase in the late 1970’s, Bill devoted countless hours researching the appropriate native plants to support the design intent of showcasing four Missouri landscape environments within the context of the garden: Ozark woodland, swale wetland, upland prairie and cedar glade. Research efforts were significantly benefited by two key reference books, Julian Steyermark’s, “Flora of Missouri,” and Edgar Denison’s, “Missouri Wildflowers,” and two native plant-knowledgeable individuals, Bill Davit of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Shaw Arboretum (now Shaw Nature Reserve) and Edgar Denison, an avid native plant enthusiast and author.

The results of Bill’s research ultimately contributed a variety of Missouri na-tive plants to the garden’s collection including American yellowwood, Ameri-can hornbeam, American hophornbeam, celandine poppy, bloodroot, wild ginger, honeysuckle azalea, Carolina buckthorn, aromatic sumac, pawpaw, bald cypress, black gum, deciduous holly, Missouri primrose, smooth sumac, shortleaf pine and gum bumelia. While Bill and his student colleagues enthusiastically pursued Mis-souri native plants as being a portion of the garden’s plant collection, skeptics often questioned, “Why do you want to plant a bunch of ‘weeds’ on the grounds of the Agriculture Building?”

Fast-forward to the current decade…

Missouri native plants and cultivated selec-tions of American natives comprise a significant portion of the plant material marketed by Bill’s company, the St. Louis office of National Nursery Products. Stormwater mitigation and projects to create sustainable landscapes has increased the demand for landscape plants adapted to the rigors of the built landscape. In preparation for the increasing demand for environmental plant material, Bill has maintained involvement as an advisory committee member with Grow Na-tive!, a program designed to promote native plant awareness jointly managed by the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Bill also served as a

consulting member of the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer Dis-trict “Best Management Practices (BMP) Taskforce” and is cur-rently engaged with recommending and supplying plant mate-rial for two “Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES)” pilot projects (Novus International headquarters and SWT Design offices) designed by SWT Design, a St. Louis-based landscape architec-ture planning and design firm.

At the January 2011 National Green Centre conference held in St. Louis, Bill convened and moderated a panel of design and landscape plant specialists to discuss the topic “Evaluating and Selecting Sustainable Plants for the Sustainable Landscape: Natives . . . and beyond?” The panel included discussion about the role of native, selections of native and non-invasive adaptable non-native plants when assembling the sustainable plant palette for sustainable landscape designs.

For more information about the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), visit: http://www.sustainablesites.org

Bill Ruppert

Woodland and Floral Garden in 1983

Rain garden at the offices of SWT Design, one of 150 Sustainable Sites

Initiative pilot projects.

Rooftop shot of rain garden at SWT Design


Events & Activities6

UPCOMING MEETINGS:7th Annual Soybean Biotechnology SymposiumApril 6, 2011http://soybiotechcenter.org/symposium/Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences CenterUniversity of Missouri, Columbia, MO

Missouri Life Sciences WeekApril 18-23, 2011http://lifesciencesweek.missouri.edu/Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences CenterUniversity of Missouri, Columbia, MO

28th Annual IPG Symposium: Plants for the FutureMay 24-27, 2011http://ipg.missouri.edu/symposium.phpChristopher S. Bond Life Sciences CenterUniversity of Missouri, Columbia, MO

MU Turfgrass & Ornamental Field DayJuly 26, 2011MU South Farms, Columbia, MO

SEMINAR SERIES

February 2 OPEN

February 9 Faculty Interview Seminar TBD

February 16 Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi, Duke University Faculty Interview Seminar

February 23 David Mendoza-Cozatl, UC-San Diego Faculty Interview Seminar

March 2 Chin-Feng Hwang, Missouri State University Molecular Breeding of Grapevine for Pathogen Resistance

March 9 Nick Haddad, NC State University Landscape approaches to insect conservation

March 16 Reid Smeda, University of Missouri Weed Science & Newton’s Third Law of Motion (Promotion Seminar)

March 23 Garry Sunter, University of Texas at SA Transcriptional Regulation in Geminiviruses

March 30 No Seminar - Spring Break

April 6 John Yang, Lincoln University Reducing arsenic (As) accumulation in rice grains through iron detox reactions in soil

April 13 William Wintermantel, USDA-ARS, CA King of the Hill: Identifying Factors Con- tributing to Emergence and Dominance of Vector Transmitted Viruses

April 20 No Seminar MU Life Sciences Week

April 27 Gary J. Muehlbauer, University of Minnesota TBD

May 4 Julian Schroeder, UC-San Diego TBD

For the most up to date Seminar Series visit http://plantsci.missouri.edu/seminar/

The Crop Management Conference was held December 1-2, 2010 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Columbia, MO. Dr. Paul Esker from the University of Wisconsin was the keynote speaker. His seminar was entitled, “Under-standing risk factors that drive re-sponse of foliar fungicide applications

in field crops.” There were about 225 attendees at this year’s conference. Those in attendance made decisions on more than 21,710 million acres throughout the Midwest. Sixty percent of those in attendance who filled out their evaluation said that they do intend to change one of their management practices as a re-sult of attending the conference.

CMconference

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

Crop Management Conference

April 9, 2011Join us for a perfect opportunity to find all the native plants you need for your home garden, and support Missouri businesses. Featuring: Four Missouri native plant and shrub vendors, Native plant themed books and items

made by local artists for sale, and many learning opportunities through informative booths and demonstrations! Bird Watch Tour from 7-10 am, Please RSVP to Thresa Chism (573-884-7945 or [email protected])

Native Plant Sale

Monsanto Auditorium, Life Sciences Center

Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m.


Recent GrantsInvestigators Title Sponsor Amount of

FundingDates

Fritschi, F. Developing Drought Toler-ant Soybeans using Extreme Phenotypes

USB $189,638 4/1/2011-3/31/2012

Jones, A. Evaluating the Effects and Tim-ing of a Side Dress Application

Cotton Inc. $15,250 1/11-12/31/2011

Jones, A. Additives for Increasing Phosphorus Fertilizer Effi-ciency in cotton Production

Cotton Inc. $12,560 1/11-12/31/2011

Jones, A. Controlled Release N Fertil-izers: Do they have a place in Missouri Cotton Production?

Cotton Inc. $21,850 1/11-12/31/2011

Jones, A. Using Real-Time Sensors to Differentiate Between Nitrogen and Water Stress in Cotton

Cotton Inc. $23,340 1/11-23/31/2011

Nguyen, H.Shannon, G.

Discovery and Characteriza-tion of Candidate Genes for Resistance to Soybean Cyst Nematode

United Soybean Board

$157,830 1/1/2011-12/31/2012

Nguyen, H.Shannon, G.

Genetic Improvement of flooding tolerance in soybean


$314,170 6/1/2010-5/31/2012

Nguyen, H.Stacey, G.

Xu, D.

Construction of Proteome and Metabolome Maps of Soybean to Improve Yield and Value-Added Traits


$381,228 1/1/2011-12/31/2011

Shannon, G.Nguyen, H.Wiebold, W.

Evaluation of Exotic Germ-plasm for Drought Tolerance

MSMC $166,055 6/1/2008-5/31/2011

Stevens, G. Effectiveness of Variable Rate Fertilizer Applications on Cotton Fields

Cotton Inc. $14,500 1/1/2011-12/31/2011

Warmund, M. Entering Passport and Yield Descriptor Data of Castanea Accessions at the University of Missouri Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center into GRIN

ARS $4,874 9/10/2010-4/15/2011

Wiebold, W. Development and Management of Canola in the Great Plains

Kansas State University

$5,000 9/1/2010-8/31/2011

Wrather, A.Mitchum, M.Shannon, G.Nguyen, H.

Soybean Cyst Nematode Biology and Management

NIFA $517,452 7/1/10-6/30/2011

Zhang, Z. Production Transgenic Corn Events to Test New Promot-ers

Dow $71,750 8/13/2010-8/13/2015

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Recent PublicationsBaykal U and Zhang Z. 2010. Chapter XI: Small RNA-mediated gene silencing for plant biotechnology. In: Gene silencing: theory, techniques and applications. Catalano AJ. ed., Nova Sci. Pub. p255-269.

Erb, M., T. Köllner, J. Degenhardt, C. Zwahlen1, B.E. Hibbard and T.C.J. Turlings. 2010. The role of abscisic acid and water stress in root herbivore-induced leaf resistance. New Phytologist 189: 308-320.

Kim S.H., Gao F., Bhattacharjee S., Nam J.C., Adiasor J.A. and Gassmann W. 2010. The Arabidopsis resistance-like gene SNC1 is activated by mutations in SRFR1 and contributes to resistance to the bacterial effector AvrRps4. PLoS Pathog. 6: e1001172.

Koenning, S. R., and J. A. Wrather. 2010. Estimates of disease effects on soybean yields in the United States from 2006 to 2009. Plant Health Progress doi:10.1094/PHP-2010-1122-01-RS.

Lee C, Chronis D, Kenning C, Peret B, Hewezi T, Davis EL, Baum TJ, Hussey RS, Bennett M and Mitchum MG. The novel cyst nematode effector protein 19C07 interacts with the Arabidopsis auxin influx transporter LAX3 to control feeding site devel-opment. Plant Physiology 2010 (in press; doi 10.1104/pp.110.167197).

Lee, JD, JG Shannon, TD Voung, H Moon, Ht Nguyen, C Tsukamoto and G Choung. 2010. Genetic diversity in wild soybean (Glycine soja Sieb and Zucc.) accessions from southern islands of Koren peninsula. Plant breeding 126: 257-263.

Lee, Jeong-Dong, J Grover Shannon and Myoung-Gun Choung. 2010. Selection for protein content in soybean from single F2 seed by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy. Euphytica 172:117-123.

Pathan, Safiullah, Henry T. Nguyen, Robert E Sharp and J Grover Shannon. 2010. Soybean improvement for drought salt and flooding tolerance. Korean J. Breed. Sci. 42(4):329-338.

Payne, K. K., B. B. Sleugh, and K. W. Bradley. 2010. Impact of herbicides and application timing on weed control, yield, and nutri-tive value of tall fescue pastures and hayfields. Weed Technol.: 24:515-522.

Pham, Anh Tung, Jeong-Dong Lee, J Grover Shannon and Kristin D Bilyeu. 2010. Mutant alleles of FAD2-1A and FAD2-1B com-bine to produce soybeans with high oleic acid seed oil trait. BMC Plant Biol. 10:195 doi:10.1186/1471-229-10-195.

Replogle A, Wang J, Bleckmann A, Hussey RS, Baum TJ, Shinichiro S, Davis EL, Wang X, Simon R, and Mitchum MG. Nema-tode CLE signaling in Arabidopsis requires CLAVATA2 and CORYNE. Plant Journal 2010 (in press: doi 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2010.04433.x).

Rogers, W. M., Roberts, C. A., Kallenbach, R. L., Rottinghaus, G. E., Hill, N. S., McClain, W. E., and Blevins, D. G. 2010. Poultry litter and its chemical equivalent can affect ergot alkaloid concentrations in tall fescue. Online. Forage and Grazinglands doi:10.1094/FG-2010-1203-01-RS.

Wang J, Replogle A, Hussey R, Baum T, Wang X, Davis EL, and Mitchum MG. Identification of potential host plant mimics of CLV3/ESR (CLE)-like peptides from the plant-parasitic nematode Heterodera schachtii. Molecular Plant Pathology 2011;12(2):177-186.

Wang J, Joshi S, Korkin D, and Mitchum MG. Variable domain I of nematode CLEs directs post-translational targeting of CLE peptides to the extracellular space. Plant Signaling and Behavior 2010;5(12):1-3.

Wright TR, Shan G, Walsh TA, Lira JM, Cui C, Song P, Zhuang M, Arnold NL, Lin G, Yau K, Russell SM, Cicchillo RM, Peterson MA, Simpson DM, Zhou N, Ponsamuel J, Zhang Z. 2010. Robust crop resistance to broadleaf and grass herbicides provided by aryloxyalkanoate dioxygenase transgenes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107: 20240–20245.

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plant sciences quarterly · ph.d., plant breeding and genetics, 2006, cornell university advisor:...

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