News and Highlights

Publications

• Pinibarreniales, a new order of Sordariomycetes from pine barrens ecosystem. Luo J, Walsh E, Faulborn A, Gao K, White J, Zhang N. 2024. Mycologia 116: 835-847. doi: 10.1080/00275514.2024.2363084
• Cultures as types and the utility of viable specimens for fungal nomenclature. Yurkov A, Visagie CM, Crous PW, Hashimoto A, Baschien C, Begerow D, Kemler M, Schoutteten N, Stadler M, Wijayawardene NN, Hyde KD, Zhang N, Boekhout T, ICTF Yeast Working group, May TW, Thines M, Hawksworth DL. 2024. IMA Fungus15: 1-12. doi: 10.1186/s43008-024-00155-8
• Horizontal and vertical distribution of Clarireedia spp. in asymptomatic and symptomatic creeping bentgrass cultivars. Groben G, Schaefer B, Clarke BB, Murphy J, Purdon P, Koch P, Zhang N. 2024. Plant Disease. doi: 10.1094/PDIS-08-23-1570-RE
• Waif to invasive: Transatlantic migration and survival of grasses introduced to North America with pre-20th century ship ballast. Schmidt RJ, Johnston JM, and Struwe L. 2024. International Journal of Plant Sciences 105: doi: 10.1086/730539
• Clarifying the nomenclature of Strychnos bredemeyeri and Lasiostoma (Loganiaceae). Setubal, R B, Struwe L, Prado J, and Forzza RC. 2024. PhytoKeys 243: 137-148, doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.243.123921
• Students in the wild: Safety instruction practices in distance-taught biological laboratory and field classes. Campbell LG, Montgomery B, King M, Hall J, and Struwe L. American Biology Teacher (accepted).
• Negative effects of herbivory by Endothenia hebesana (verbena bud moth), Chlorochlamys chloroleucaria (black berry looper), and Odocoileus virginianus (white-tailed deer) on the rare Gentiana autumnalis (Pine Barren gentian) in New Jersey. Rebozo R, Bien W, McLaughlin J, and Struwe L. 2024. Bartonia (to be published).
• Streamlined spatial and environmental expression signatures characterize the minimalist duckweed Wolffia australiana. Denyer T, Wu PJ, Colt K, Abramson BW, Pang Z, Solansky P, Mamerto A, Nobori T, Ecker JR, Lam E, Michael TP, and Timmermans MCP. 2024. Genome Research 34: 1106-1120. doi:10.1101/gr.279091.124
• Source of Vitamin B12 in plants of the Lemnaceae family and its production by duckweed-associated bacteria.
  Acosta, K, Sree, KS, Okamoto N, Koseki K, Sorrels S, Jahreis G, Watanabe F, Appenroth KJ, and Lam E. 2024. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, 135, 106603. doi: 10.1016/j.jfca.2024.106603
• Nickel and Soil Fertility: Review of Benefits to Environment and Food Security. Environments. Rabinovich A, Di R, Lindert S, and Heckman J. 2024, 11(8), 177. doi: 10.3390/environments11080177
• Soil Profile 2024 Newsletter: Mineral Nutrition and Plant Disease (PDF), Joseph Heckman, 2024. Volume 29.
  The newsletter discusses how to make good use of the book titled "Mineral Nutrition and Plant Disease" published by the American Phytopathological Society ($147), to protect plants from disease. This would be a good reference book to have in an Extension office library.
• Phylogenomics and the rise of the angiosperms. Alexandre R. Zuntini, Tom Carruthers, Olivier Maurin, ... Lena Struwe, … William J. Baker. Nature. 23 May 2024. [angiosperm phylogeny of all 64 orders, all 416 families, and 58% of genera in the world – based on 353 nuclear genes] doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07324-0
• PIF transcription factors-versatile plant epigenome landscapers. Moonia Ammari, Kashif Maseh, Mark Zander. Frontiers in Epigenetics and Epigenomics. 16 May 2024. doi: 10.3389/freae.2024.1404958
• Structure-Function Analysis of the A1 Subunit of Shiga Toxin 2 with Peptides That Target the P-Stalk Binding Site and Inhibit Activity.
  Li XP, Rudolph MJ, Chen Y, Tumer NE. Biochemistry. 2024 Mar 11. doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.3c00733. Online ahead of print. PMID: 38467020

• Structure-based design and optimization of a new class of small molecule inhibitors targeting the P-stalk binding pocket of ricin.
  Rudolph MJ, Dutta A, Tsymbal AM, McLaughlin JE, Chen Y, Davis SA, Theodorous SA, Pierce M, Algava B, Zhang X, Szekely Z, Roberge JY, Li XP, Tumer NE. Bioorg Med Chem. 2024 Feb 15;100:117614. doi: 10.1016/j.bmc.2024.117614. Epub 2024 Feb 5. PMID: 38340640

Awards and Honors

• Graduate students Mark Labarge, Ryan E. Earp, and William Errickson were awarded at the 2024 ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting (November 2024). See the article in the SEBS and NJAES Newsroom.
  
  Mark Labarge - 2nd place in the graduate student oral presentation competition for Turfgrass Breeding, Genomics, Physiology, and Molecular Biology.
  Presentation title: "Evaluation of Improved Cold Hardy Bermudagrass and Zoysiagrass for Use in New Jersey"
  
  Ryan Earp - 2^nd place in the graduate student poster presentation for Turfgrass Breeding, Genomics, Physiology, and Molecular Biology.
  Presentation title: "Comparison of Genotype Calling Methods for Kentucky Bluegrass"
  
  William Errickson - Outstanding Paper in Turfgrass Science.
  For the publication Errickson, W., Huang, B., Zhang, N. Promotive Effects of Endophytic Rhizobacteria on Tiller and Root Growth in Creeping Bentgrass During Drought Stress and Post-stress Recovery Involving Regulation of Hormone and Sugar Metabolism. Crop Science, 63(4), 2583-2593.

  

• Graduate student Antonia Kaz (PhD mentor Dr. Ilya Raskin) received the award for “Best Poster Abstract Presentation” for the 11^th International Conference on Polyphenols and Health, Boston, MA. She also received 200 USD prizemoney and waived Open Access fee for publishing the publication in the journal of Nutrition and Healthy Aging.

• Dr. Xenia Morin and Dr. Serpil Guran, Department of Plant Biology,  were two speakers who, along with East Brunswick Sustainability Task Force and East Brunswick Public Library and the Friends of East Brunswick Environmental Commission received an Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) 2024 Environmental Achievement Award for the series "Food Choices for a Small Planet" on food waste reduction at ANJEC's 2024 Environmental Congress on Friday, September 27th at Rowan College of Burlington Cty in Mt Laurel, NJ.  Thanks to Liti Haramaty (Marine Science) for facilitating participation.

• The Gallavotti lab received the following award from NSF MCB (Division of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience), awarded amount $1,088,678.00:
  Collaborative Research: PlantTransform: Morphogenic-based mechanisms of maize regeneration
  Co-PIs: David Jackson, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; Bastiaan Bargmann, Virginia Tech; Margaret Young, Elizabeth City State University
  Small summary:
  Inefficient methods for transformation and regeneration of recalcitrant plant species prevent widespread applications of genome editing technologies for both basic and applied research in established and emerging crop species. Overcoming these limitations is particularly relevant in monocotyledonous crops, such as maize, which alone provide most of the calories consumed by humans. In this project, maize lines expressing genes that promote regeneration, also known as morphogenic factors, will be used to provide a thorough understanding of the molecular events leading to the successful formation of new plants starting from differentiated tissue.
  
  Start date Jan 1, 2025 – end date 12/31/2027
• Nilgun Tumer was awarded a new NIH R01 grant for $3,494,012.
  Title: Small molecule inhibitors targeting the ribosome binding site of ricin and Shiga toxin
  Project Number: 1R01AI178870-01A1
  Contact PI/Project Leader: Tumer, Nilgun E
  Awardee Organization: RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIV OF N.J.
  
  Duration : March 1, 2024–Jan 31, 2029.
• Dr. Xenia Morin served as an expert judge for the New Jersey Youth Institute for the World Food Prize. This program, hosted by the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and held at Rutgers Busch Campus on March 8, 2024, bought 135 high school students to campus. Judges provided feedback to students who presented their research on food security in different countries around the world.
  For more information see:
  New Jersey Youth Institute World Food Prize
  and
  New Jersey Youth Institute
• Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey (NOFA-NJ) Annual Meeting, January 27, 2024. Xenia Morin, on behalf of the team, showed Fields of Devotion, the short science-in-action documentary followed by a moderated question-and-answer session. Rob Mattera III, Alex Barrett and Trevor Styles participated in the Q&A.

  

• Holly Club of Sea Girt, Sea Girt NJ, March 7, 2024. Xenia Morin, on behalf of the team, showed Fields of Devotion, the short science-in-action documentary. Dr Morin fielded a wide range of questions during the 30 minute question-and-answer session following the screening.
• Garden State Film Festival, March 24, 2024. Screening of Life on the Edge: Exploring New Jersey's Coastal Ecosystems followed by filmmaker Q&A. Xenia Morin took two of the three students from the Spring 2023 Agriculture and Food Systems Independent Study Course to the event. Shown below are SEBS students Micah Seidel (Biological Sciences major) and Angie Catt (Agriculture and Food Systems Major); missing Natalie Radu (SEBS Plant Science Minor). Oscar Schofield was the producer of the film. Daphne Monroe's research is featured in this film. Xenia Morin was the agriculture and food systems faculty advisor and Dena Seidel was the Science Storytelling Advisor.
  The film won best "Home Grown Student Short Documentary" in the college category.

  

   
• Nrupali Patel, assistant teaching professor and Undergraduate Program Director in Plant Science, and Chitra Ponnusamy, assistant teaching professor and Undergraduate Program Director of Food Science, are co-PIs of a $15,000 Rutgers Global Faculty Innovation in Global Learning grant to develop a winter study abroad course, "Applying immersive learning to rural agro-food issues: Study Abroad in Southern India."

Speaking Invitations

• Megan King (and Lena Struwe): 'A Model for Experiential Learning and Broader Educational Impacts in Collections: Creating an Herbarium Army for Rutgers University's students ', SPNCH-TDGW conference, 2-6 September 2024, Okinawa, Japan, in the symposium 'Broadening Access, Community Science, Inclusion, Education, Outreach'
• Lena Struwe (and co-authors): 'The true value of herbaria – an interdisciplinary and updated summary why natural history collections will help save the world,' SPNCH-TDGW conference, 2-6 September 2024, Okinawa, Japan, in the symposium 'A Fly Can't Bird but a Bird Can Fly: Current advances and challenges at the intersections of collection management systems, institutions and community.'
• Lena Struwe (and Anders Ivarsson): 'AI-squared: Academic Integrity and Artificial Intelligence in Botanical Education,
  Conflict and Opportunity in a Changing World', Botany 2024 conference, Grand Rapids, MI, 16-19 June 2024
• Schmidt, R. (and Lena Struwe & Charles Davis), 'Credit across centuries: new digital tools uncover hidden figures that built an invaluable herbarium dataset for studying historical plant invasions over 200 years', Botany 2024 conference, Grand Rapids, MI, 16-19 June 2024.
• Struwe. L ., (and co-authors), 'An assessment of the true value of herbaria: An updated version of Vicki Funk's list of 100 uses for herbaria, 20 years later.' Botany 2024 conference, Grand Rapids, MI, 16-19 June 2024.
• Nicole Vaccaro (and Lena Struwe &  Megan King), 'Specimen Stories: Using Herbaria to Explore Time with Plants, Places, and People.' Botany 2024 conference, Grand Rapids, MI, 16-19 June 2024.
• Nicole Vaccaro (and Lena Struwe & James White), 'Improving Biological Education: Using Bryophytes to Expand Scientific Learning.' Botany 2024 conference, Grand Rapids, MI, 16-19 June 2024.
• Dr. Xenia Morin partnered with Dr. Serpil Guran to educate the community on Sustainable Diets and Food Waste Reduction at the East Brunswick Library on May 21, 2024.
• Dr. Xenia Morin delivered a "Mentoring Up" Workshop to 40 underrepresented college students during the Research Intensive Summer Experience (RISE) Summer Program held at Weeks Hall, Rutgers School of Engineering on June 12, 2024. This workshop is part of a Rutgers School of Graduate Studies initiative to diversify the STEM workforce led by Evelyn Erenrich.
• Dr. Xenia Morin delivered a "Mentoring Up" Workshop to 28 underrepresented high school students and in-service teachers during the Rutgers Youth Enjoy Science (REYUS) Summer Program Orientation at the Rutgers Cancer Institute on June 27, 2024. This workshop is part of an NIH R25 Diversity Supplement Grant (PI: Sunita Chaundary).
• Dr. Xenia Morin, on behalf of the science storytelling team, hosted a science-in-action storytelling screening at the Floriculture Greenhouse during Rutgers Day on Saturday, April 27, 2024. These science stories feature research in the Department of Plant Biology and Department of Marine and Coastal Science, unveiling of ongoing student video storytelling projects centered on Rutgers research on amaranth, catnip, and coastal and ocean sciences. The award-winning documentary "Fields of Devotion," showcasing Rutgers basil plant breeding science was shown along with other new and compelling student works like "Biting Back" (catnip), "Life on the Edge: Exploring New Jersey's Coastal Ecosystems," and "Stories from the Marsh." Additionally, people learned about the impact this experiential learning model had on student learning and how high school and college students could get involved in on-going projects.

Books and Book Chapters

• Handbook of Vegetable and Herb Diseases. Wyenandt, C.A. (2024). Fungicide Management of Vegetable Disease. in: Elmer, W.H., McGrath, M., McGovern, R.J. (eds). Handbook of Vegetable and Herb Diseases. Handbook of Plant Disease Management. Springer, Cham. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-35512-8_11-1

• Compendium of Pepper Diseases, Disorders, and Pests – 2nd Edition. Wyenandt, C.A. and W.L. Kline. (2024). Skin Separation (Silvering). in: Compendium of Pepper Diseases, Disorders, and Pests, Second Edition. P. Roberts, S. Sanogo, and F. Ochoa Corona, eds. The American Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, MN. doi: 10.1094/9780890547168.09.09.1

• Xenia Morin “When hunger is in your higher education classroom in the United States” in Part 2, Chapter 8 “A Compilation of Global Case Studies on Teaching and Learning and Campus Stewardship” in Higher Education and SDG2: Zero Hunger, Emerald (Karen Cripps and Pariyarth Sangeetha Thondre Eds.) Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, England. https://bookstore.emerald.com/higher-education-and-sdg2-pb-9781836084617.html (30 October 2024 publication date).

In the News and Citations In the News

• "We Can Grow Our Own Hazelnuts, Finally" in ambrook.com/research describes Tom Molnar's work on American hazelnuts. November 2024.
• Joseph Heckman, who serves on the Raw Milk Institute's board, was cited in an article in Lancaster Farming in November 2024. The article reported on the prospects of raw milk.