EARTH.COM - Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have made an exciting discovery in the ongoing war between plants and their fungal mold adversaries. In a recent study, the team revealed a novel defense mechanism plants employ against the notorious gray mold, a fungus responsible for extensive damage to a wide array of crops...
POPULAR SCIENCE - While refrigerators store food at safe temperatures and keep it fresh, they can also be a breeding ground for fuzzy gray mold that spoils fruit. Most molds thrive in warm temperatures, but many can grow in the refrigerator by producing spores. The spores can go airborne and accumulate inside the refrigerator and...
POPULAR SCIENCE - Wildfires have a multitude of impacts on an ecosystem. While many are negative, some animals thrive after fire, from the charred remains serving as shelter for insects and small animals like the black-backed woodpecker and spotted owl. In a study published February 6 in the journal Molecular Ecology, researchers from t he...
KESQ - UC Riverside received more than $4 million in federal funds to research methods of shielding avocados from a fungus that can be devastating to crops in California and elsewhere, it was announced today. The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded the university a $4.4 million grant as part of its National Institute of Food...
THE SCIENTIST - Mycelium is the fabric of fungal populations: fungi produce thread-like roots called hyphae, which branch and fuse with one another to form a vast, interconnected network—the mycelium. It allows fungi to grow rapidly, transport nutrients, and even share information about the local environment over long distances. The network is also vulnerable; a...
Caroline Roper, an associate professor of plant pathology; and Shou-Wei Ding, a professor of plant pathology; are among the 2020 award winners from an international professional organization of plant pathologists. The American Phytopathological Society, or APS, regularly honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the science of plant pathology. Roper and Ding were presented...
LOS ANGELES TIMES - Attention home gardeners: Our beloved citrus trees may yet be saved from the incurable huanglongbing, a.k.a. HLB or citrus greening disease, thanks to natural immunities found in a rare and flavorful relative known as the Australian finger lime. After five years of study, a team of UC Riverside researchers led by...
NATURE OUTLOOK - Biologists studying extracellular RNA (exRNA) — and the tiny spherical structures known as exosomes that shuttle this genetic information from cell to cell — typically focus on mammals. As long ago as the 1960s, however, scientists found that plant cells also generate vesicles that carry cargo out of the cell membrane. But...
By Roxanne Khamsi | Nature Outlook: Extracellular RNA |
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced a projected $54 billion budget deficit for California. As a result, the University of California faces budget cuts. But the UC system is already running in starvation mode from cuts made during the last recession. Now is the time to invest in research and higher education. It...
By Sydney Glassman (UCR Department of Microbiology & Plant Pathology) | The Press-Enterprise |
