2017 News Briefs
PublicationsAwards and
Honors Speaking
Invitations Book
Chapters
General News
- James Hempfling placed first for his oral paper presentation entitled ?Dollar spot control affected by bentgrass susceptibility and fungicide programming? at the 77th Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Division American Phytopathological Society. Qu?bec, Canada. November 2017.
- Hui Chen placed first at the Graduate Student Oral Paper Competition (Molecular Techniques, Turf Genetics and Breeding) for his presentation entitled ?Nitrogen Effect on Fine Fescue Fiber and Protein Contents? at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (C5 Division), Tampa, FL. October 2017.
- Cathryn Chapman placed third at the Graduate Student Oral Paper Competition (Turf Physiology, Breeding, and Genetics Section) for her presentation entitled ?Effects of Elevated Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide on Drought Tolerance and Post-Drought Recovery of Kentucky Bluegrass? at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (C5 Division), Tampa, FL. October 2017.
- Cathryn Chapman placed third at the Graduate Student Poster Competition (Turf Science and Management Section) for her poster entitled ?Effects of Hormones on Drought Tolerance and Post-Drought Recovery in Creeping Bentgrass? at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (C5 Division), Tampa, FL. October 2017.
- James Hempfling placed first for his oral paper presentation entitled ?Bentgrass susceptibility affects fungicide programming for dollar spot? at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (C5 Division), Tampa, FL. October 2017; (Turf Pests: Diseases and Insects Section).
- James Hempfling placed third for his Graduate Student poster entitled ?Evaluation of dollar spot predictive models on bentgrasses in New Jersey? at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (C5 Division), Tampa, FL. October 2017; (Turf Management: Pests Section).
- Stephanie Fong received 1st place honors in the graduate student poster competition at the National Association of Plant Breeding annual meeting in Davis, CA Aug 7-10 for the presentations entitled "Loci Impacting Malic and Citric Acid Content in Cranberry Fruit".
- Joan Bennett chaired a committee that produced a report entitled ?Microbiomes of the Built Environment? for the National Academy of Sciences.
- Dr. Albert Ayeni's "Pumpkin Habenero" was featured a NJ.com article entitled "Perfect pepper for picky palates" in April.
Publications
- Zheng Z-L, Leustek T (2017) Advances in Understanding Sulfur-Utilization Efficiency in Plants. In: Plant Macronutrient Use Efficiency: Molecular and Genomic Perspectives in Crop Plants. Hossain MA, Kamiya T, Burritt DJ, Fujiwara T, Tran L-S P eds., Elsevier, ISNB: 9780128113080
- Xiang X, Wu Y, Planta J, Messing J, Leustek T (2017) Overexpression of serine acetyltransferase in maize leaves increases seed-specific methionine-rich zeins. Plant Biotechnology Journal, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pbi.12851/full
- Planta J, Xiang X, Leustek T, Messing J (2017) Engineering sulfur storage in maize without apparent yield loss. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/10/03/1714805114. abstract
- Walker, D. M, P. E. Smouse, M. Reginato, & L. Struwe. 2017. Cladal divergence in fungal Ophiognomonia (Gnomoniaceae: Diaporthales) shows evidence of climatic niche vicariance. Biological Journal of Linnean Society.
- Cali?, M. F., K. B. Lepis, J. R. Pirani, & L. Struwe. 2017. Phylogeny of Helieae (Gentianaceae): resolving taxonomic chaos in a Neotropical clade. Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution 106: 192-208
- Tian, Z., Wang, R., Ambrose, K.V., Clarke, B.B., and Belanger, F.C. (2017) The Epichlo? festucae antifungal protein has activity against the plant pathogen Sclerotinia homoeocarpa, the causal agent of dollar spot disease. Scientific Reports 7:5643
- Graf, B. L., S. Kamat, K. Cheong, S. Komarnytsky, M. Driscoll and R. Di. Phytoecdysteroid-enriched quinoa seed leachate enhances healthspan and mitochondrial metabolism in Caenorhabditis elegans. J. Func. Foods 37:1-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.jff.2017.07.016
- Nicholi Vorsa Patents
US Plant Patent No. PP27,657. Cranberry variety CNJ99-9-96, Feb 14, 2017.
US Plant Patent No. PP27,709. Cranberry variety CNJ99-52-15, Issues Feb 28, 2017. - Daverdin, G., Johnson-Cicalese, J., Zalapa, J., Vorsa, N., and Polashock J., 2017. Mapping and identification of fruit rot resistance QTL in American cranberry using GBS Mol Breeding, 37:38
- Wang Y., Singh, A.P., Nelson, H.N., Kaiser A.J., Reker N.C., Hooks T.L., Wilson T, and Vorsa N. Urinary clearance of cranberry flavonol glycosides in humans. 2016. J Agric. Food Chem.
- Di, R., M. S. Vakkalanka, C. Onumpai, H. Chau, A. K. White, R. A. Rastall, K. Yamnand A. T. Hotchkiss, Jr. 2017. Orange pectic oligosaccharides inhibit Escherichia coli O157:H7 adhesion and reduce Shiga toxin cytotoxicity in HT29 cells. Food Chem. 227:245-254
- Heckman, J.R. 2017. Organic Lawn Care Case Studies on Home Turf. Research in Agriculture. 2: 1-6.
Awards and Honors
- Dr. Lena Stuwe et al. received an NSF: Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program (ADBC). Collaborative Research: Digitization TCN: The Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis: Achieving a greater scientific understanding of our urban world. The grant totals $1.5 million, Rutgers budget $65,000. Rutgers PI: Lena Struwe, Rutgers Co-PI: Myla Aronson, Lead PI: Cynthia Skema, University of Pennsylvania, (Sep 2016-Aug 2020).
- Joan Bennett received the Tai Fung-Lan Award for International Cooperation from the Mycological Society of China.
- Joseph Heckman was awarded a USDA-SARE Grant (2017 to 2019); ?Farmer-generated training and equipment solutions for producing and processing value-added grains?. This grant is in partnership with OGRIN, NOFA-NJ, and Rutgers University.
Abstract
Problem and justification
For land-constrained farmers in the Northeast, value-added grain production holds great potential for increasing farm profitability while growing crops that can enhance agroecosystem health. When the traditional small grains crops, which are largely grown in the region as feed or soil-improving cover crops, are managed organically and for food-grade quality, they and their exotic cousins, the ancient wheats spelt, emmer, and einkorn, can fetch retail prices comparable to those of high-value vegetable crops. However, a survey of farmers in PA, NY, and NJ showed that two constraints to the development of value-added grain enterprises are lack of expertise in food-grade grain production and processing and difficulty in finding affordable, scale-appropriate production and processing equipment. - Nicholi Vorsa received a grant from USDA-NIFA-AFRI entitled ?Targeting Cranberry Fruit Chemistry to Develop Cultivars with Novel Phytochemical Profiles for Healthier, Reduced ?Added-Sugar? Products? in the amount of $456,727
- Nicholi Vorsa received a grant from the Botanical Dietary Supplements Research Center entitiled ?Beneficial effect of Bioactive Cranberry Flavonoids on Adipogenesis and Lipolysis? in the amount of $30,000
- Nicholi Vorsa received a grant from the OCEAN SPRAY CRANBERRIES, Inc. entitled ?Isolation of Individual Proanthocyanidin (PAC) Compounds and Fractions from Cranberry and Cocoa? in the amount of $154,954
- Chaim Frenkel received a grant from the PA Peach & Nectarine Research Program entitled ?Cold-induced Mealiness in Nectarine is Caused by Fruit Cell Wall Crosslinking? in the amount of $1,500
- Dr. Nilgun Tumer received a new NIH R01 grant for $2,182,115 during 02/01/2017-01/31/2022 entitled Inhibitors targeting ribosome interactions of ricin to identify inhibitors that target toxin-specific and unique steps in the ricin toxin intoxication pathway.
- On January 26, 2017 Rong Di won an International Patent Award: Compositions and methods for inducing resistance to soybean cyst nematode via RNAi. WO 2017/015621 A1.
- Joan Bennett and Sally Pahdi received a one year grant from U.S. Fish & Wildlife for $39,900. It is entitled ?A molecular analysis of Pseudogymnoascus destructans treated with safe volatile compounds: a new strategy for control of white nose syndrome.? White nose syndrome is the serious fungal disease that is killing bats. In the Northeast this has caused 88% mortalities in the bat population.
Speaking Invitations and Conferences
- Lena Stuwe gave a talk entitled "From Vasculums to iPhones: 150 years of botanical field research technology in a nutshell", Torrey Botanical Society 150th Anniversary Symposium, The New York Botanical Garden, September 15, 2017.
- Presentation Abstract
Struwe, L. & N. Howe. 2017. Discovery and learning of everyday biodiversity using iNaturalist-driven bioblitzes and campus inventories. 4th Life Discovery- Doing Science Education conference, Norman, OK, October 19-21, 2017. - Lena Struwe gave a talk titled ?Teaching about biodiversity in the age of digital distraction and opportunity ? learning how, when, and what?? BioSyst-EU 2017, 17 August 2017, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Struwe, L., T. Livshultz, H. Hettling, R. Scharn, & A. Antonelli presented an abstract titled ?Progress in Gentianales Systematics: Molecular Phylogeny, Morphological Evolution and Divergence Times of a Cosmopolitan Asterid Order? at the XIX International Botanical Congress, Shenzhen, China, July 23-29, 2017.
- Blake-Mahmud, J. & L. Struwe presented an abstract titled ?Sugars, stress, and sex-change: environmental sex determination in striped maple? at the Botany 2017 conference, Fort Worth, TX, June 24-28, 2017.
- Joan Bennett gave a lecture entitled ?Communication with fungal aroma compounds,? to the Plenary Lecture for Mycological Society of China annual meeting in Yichang, China; the Hubei University in Wuhan, China; the Wuhan Biotechnology Institute, Wuhan, China and Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
- Joseph Heckman gave a seminar entitled ?Chickens on Pasture and Soil Fertility? to the American Pasture Poultry Producers Association. Carversville Farm Foundation, Mechanicsville, PA.
- Joseph Heckman presented a talk entitled ?Building Soil Fertility with Poultry? on March 18, 2017 at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in New York
- Joan Bennett presented a talk entitled "More than just a funky smell: filamentous fungi use molecular vapors to communicate." at the 29th Fungal Genetics Conference, Asilomar California, March 2017.
- Lena Struwe presented a talk entitled ?The love and hate of weeds: An interdisciplinary analysis of opinions in media, metaphors and biological facts.? at the Semiotics of Plant-Human Sociality Conference: Phytocommunicability across disciplines, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, February 24, 2017.
- Lena Struwe gave a talk entitled ?How to create opportunities in research, education, and outreach through the formation of an undergraduate Herbarium Army? at the Association of Southeastern Biologists Meeting, Montgomery, AL, March 29-31 - April 1, 2017
Books and Book Chapters
- Baars, T., P. Beals, T. Beals, R. Brown, M. Cattell, J. Heckman, A. Nelson, G. Snyder, S. Wilson, T. Wightman. Producing Fresh Milk, Goat Edition. 2017. Farm-to-Consumer Foundation. Cincinnati, Ohio.