News and Highlights

2021 News Briefs

Publications
  Awards and
Honors Speaking
Invitations Book
Chapters

 

General News

• Dr. Eric Lam’s article Duckweed Model System review in The Plant Cell advance online was featured in RU Daily: Read Here
• Dr. Bingru Huang was appointed Editor-in-Chief for Crop Science Society of America (CSSA)
  Appointment as Editor-in-Chief for Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) by the society president for a three-year term (January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2024) in charges of all publications in the society. The continued success of the ASA, CSSA and SSSA publications relies upon the commitment and dedication of society members, like yourself, accepting the challenge of a leadership role managing our journals, magazines, and books. The evolving research publishing landscape and adoption of open science mandates are forcing the tri-societies to redevelop publications through new initiatives and partnerships to remain successful. Your experience and subject matter expertise are valuable assets to guide the journals over the next several years. Your vision and proactive leadership are vital for our publications to reach their strategic goals.
  As Editor-in-Chief, you will be supporting journal authors, editorial board members, and society leaders. Maintaining focus on journal editorial quality and improving metrics while also managing future challenges and opportunities will be paramount. I have attached a copy of the official position guidelines to provide you with a detailed accounting of the duties and responsibilities of the appointment. Additionally, you are also highly encouraged to attend the ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting as a representative of our publications. While in this role, the ACSESS staff are also available with support when you attend scientific meetings and conferences.
• Albert Ayeni was appointed Guest Editor for the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI-published Agronomy journal (IF 2.603) to serve as Editor of the journal’s Special Issue on “Ethnic Crops in the United States of America”.
  Special Issue Objective: To build a knowledge repository for standardizing communication in the ethnic crop industry in the United States of America.
  To learn more about the MDPI-Published Agronomy journal Special Issue on Ethnic Crops in the United State of America and to submit an article, please visit Agronomy|Special Issue:Ethnic Crops in the United States of America (mdpi.com).
• The 30th Anniversary Rutgers Turf Symposium was held on Mar 21st
  Read More:
• Effective January 1, 2021, Stacy Bonos, professor of turfgrass breeding and associate director of the Rutgers Center for Turfgrass Science, has a new role as director of the turfgrass breeding program at NJAES. Stacy follows in the footsteps of William “Bill” Meyer, professor of turfgrass breeding, who has led the turfgrass breeding program for the past 25 years. We’re thrilled that Bill will continue his groundbreaking research as a faculty member on this dynamic turfgrass breeding team.
  The Rutgers NJAES turfgrass breeding program is one of the largest and most successful breeding programs for cool-season turfgrasses in the world. Established in 1923 with its first turfgrass evaluation plots, the program saw exponential growth when pioneer C. Reed Funk, the first full-time cool-season turfgrass breeder at a university in the U.S., joined the Rutgers faculty in 1962. Under Bill’s leadership, the NJAES world-renowned turfgrass breeding program dramatically expanded the germplasm base of the cool-season turfgrasses for which the program is famous. Releases of landmark cultivars of perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, and fine fescue have graced high-profile venues such as Central Park, the Rose Bowl, the White House, and championship golf courses.
  A professor in the Department of Plant Biology, Stacy joined Rutgers as an assistant professor in 2001. She is well-known for her efforts in classical breeding and molecular biology that have resulted in the release of hundreds of improved turfgrass cultivars over the past 20 years. In particular, she has had tremendous success developing cultivars of creeping bentgrass with dramatic improvements in dollar spot disease resistance. Stacy has been recognized with numerous awards during her career, including the Early Career Excellence in Plant Breeding Award from the Multi-state Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee, the Young Crop Scientist Award from the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and the Rutgers University Board of Trustees Research Excellence Award. She was named a Fellow by CSSA in 2016 and the Agronomy Society of America (ASA) in 2020.
  As director, Stacy will have responsibility and authority for the turfgrass breeding program as a research and commercial enterprise. Stacy will also serve as faculty director of Adelphia Field Station. James (Jim) Murphy will serve as faculty director of Hort Farm II.
  I also want to take this opportunity to thank Bill Meyer for his leadership that has positioned the turfgrass breeding program for continuing excellence. Bill was recruited from a successful career in private industry to join Rutgers in 1996 to lead the NJAES turfgrass breeding program and serve as the associate director of the Center for Turfgrass Science. He is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading breeders of cool-season turfgrasses and has released more than 500 turfgrass cultivars during his 50-year career, including many landmark varieties of Kentucky bluegrass, bentgrass, tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, and fine fescue. Bill’s long and distinguished career has earned him multiple prestigious awards, including being named a Fellow by CSSA and ASA, induction in the New Jersey Turfgrass Association Hall of Fame, the Impact Award from the National Association of Plant Breeders, the Lifetime Membership Award from the Turfgrass Breeders Association, and the USGA Green Section Award. In 2016, Bill was named the inaugural C. Reed Funk Endowed Faculty Scholar in Plant Biology and Genetics at Rutgers
• Bingru Huang was invited to create the new journal and serve as the editor-in-chief for Grass Research by the publisher, Maximum Academic Press. The inaugural issue will be published in January-February 2021.
  "Starting from the beginning of identify gaps in grass research by performing literature search to determine how the new journal would be differentiated from current journals publishing papers related to grass species. Through extensive review, I found out that current journals publishing research related to grass species cover topics of the applied aspects, such as turfgrass management programs, and no journals are dedicated to the publication of basic research in grass biology, as for the example of turfgrass breeding, genetics, physiology and molecular biology. That is why I started the Grass Research journal. The next step was setting up the editorial board by inviting scientists in the areas of grass biology (Faith Belanger and my former student, David Jespersen are on the board, serving as associate editor). With the help of the publisher, I have built the website that home the journal, describing the scope of the journal and other related information. Please see more information in the link http://www.maxapress.com/journal/grares. you may notice that the cover page of the journal is a photo I have taken in Hort Farm II. Hope this journal will elevate the visibility of Rutgers turf center and our department of Plant Biology."

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Publications

1. 2022. Mahoney, O., C.Melo, A. Lockhart, N. Cornejal, S. Alsaidi, Q.L. Wu, J.E. Simon, R. Juliani, T.M. Zydowsky, C. Priano, A. Koroch and J.A. Fernández Romero. Antiviral activity of Aframomum melegueta against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses type 1 and 2. South African Journal of Botany 146:735-739. DOI: /doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2021.12.010
2. 2021. Gomes, E.N.; M. Zorde; H. Patel; W. Lyu; Q.L. Wu and J.E. Simon. Chemodiversity in Nepeta spp.: A literature review on comparative germplasm studies with focus on iridoids and other terpenes. Journal of Medicinally Active Plants 10, (4):82-115. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/jmap/vol10/iss4/4
3. 2021. Lyu, W., D. Rodriguez, M. Ferruzzi, G.M. Pasinetti, J.W. Murrough, J.E. Simon and Q.L. Wu. Chemistry, Manufacturing and Standardization Controls of Grape Polyphenol Dietary Supplements for Support of a Clinical Study: Mass Uniformity, Polyphenol Dosage and Profile. Frontiers in Nutrition: 8:780226. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2021.780226
4. 2021. O’Brien, R., J.E. Simon, B. Tepper. How do trained panelists characterize baby leafy greens? A comparison of Descriptive Analysis and Napping. J. Food Science: 1–19. DOI: 10.1111/1750-3841.15985
5. 2021. Lyu, W., T. Omar, H. Patel, D. Rodriguez, M.G. Ferruzzi, G.M. Pasinetti, J.W. Murrough, F.J. Muzzio, J.E. Simon and Q.L. Wu. Dissolution Study of Grape Polyphenol Hard Gelatin Capsule Dietary Supplements. Frontiers in Nutrition: 8:780260. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2021.780260
6. 2021. Lyu, W., B. Yuan, S. Liu, J.E. Simon and Q.L. Wu. Assessment of lemon juice adulteration by targeted screening using LC-UV-MS and untargeted screening using UHPLC-QTOF/MS with machine learning. J. Food Chemistry 373(a):131424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131424
7. 2021. Yin, Z., B. Yuan, W. Lyu, Q. Huang, J.E. Simon and Q.L. Wu. Method development and validation for analysis of phenolic compounds in fatty complex matrices using enhanced matrix removal (EMR) lipid cleanup and UHPLC-QqQ-MS/MS. J. Food Chemistry: 30;373(Pt A):131096. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131096
8. 2021. Carry, E., Kshatriya, D., Silva, J., Davies, D.L., Yuan, B., Wu, Q.L., Patel, H., Park, E.R., Gilleran, J., Hao, L., Roberge, J., Bello, N.T. and J.E. Simon. Identification of dihydromyricetin and metabolites in serum and brain associated with acute anti-ethanol intoxicating effects in mice. International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS): 22(14):7460 (pp. 1-14). doi.org/10.3390/ijms22147460.
9. 2021. de Rus Jacquet, A., Ambaw, A., Tambe, M.A., Ma, S.Y., Timmers, M., Grace, M.H., Wu, Q.L., Simon, J.E., McCabe, G.P., Lila, M.A., Shi, R., and J.C. Rochet. Neuroprotective mechanisms of red clover and soy isoflavones in Parkinson’s disease models. J. Food and Function 12(23):11987-12007. doi: 10.1039/d1fo00007a.
10. 2021. Reichert, W., H. Patel, C. Mazzei, H. Rodolfo Juliani and J.E. Simon. Two new high carvacrol yielding oregano (Origanum vulgare) cultivars: ‘Pierre’ and ‘Eli’. HortScience 56(12):1610–1613. 2021. https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI14886-20
11. 2021. Yuan, B., D. Zhao, W. Lyu, Z. Yin, D. Kshatriya, J.E. Simon, N.T. Bello and Q.L. Wu. Development and validation of a micro QuEChERS method with high-throughput enhanced matrix removal followed with UHPLC-QqQ-MS/MS for analysis of raspberry ketone-related phenolic compounds in adipose tissues. Talanta 235:122716. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2021.122716
12. 2021. Brindisi, L. C.A. Wyenandt, V. Arora, D. Kenigsbuch, N. Dudai, I. Gonda and J.E. Simon. A rapid screening approach to identify chilling tolerant sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.). J Medicinally Active Plants 1177:1-10.
13. 2021. Vasilatis, A., T. Gianfagna and J.E. Simon. Investigation of growth inhibition by thymol and carvacrol from Thymus spp. and Origanum vulgare on Botrytis cinerea. J Medicinally Active Plants 1177:24-31.
14. 2021. Lyu, W., B. Yuan, S. Liu, J.E. Simon and Q.L. Wu. Assessment of lemon juice quality and adulteration by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/triple quadrupole mass spectrometry with interactive and interpretable machine learning. J. Food and Drug Analysis: 29(2), 275-286. doi:10.38212/2224-6614.3356
15. 2021. Patel, M., Lee, R., Merchant, E.V., Juliani, H.R., Simon, J.E., and B.J. Tepper. 2021. Descriptive aroma profiles of fresh sweet basil cultivars (Ocimum spp.): Relationship to volatile chemical composition. J. Food Science 1-12.https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-3841.15797
16. 2021. Zhang, X., Y.C. Low, M.A. Lawton, J.E. Simon and R. Di. CRISPR-editing of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) homoserine kinase gene for improved downy mildew disease resistance. Front. Genome Ed. 3:629769. doi: 10.3389/fgeed.2021.629769
17. 2021. Westfall, S, Caracci F, Zhao D, Wu Q.L., Frolinger T, Simon J.E., Pasinetti G. M. Microbiota metabolites modulate the T helper 17 to regulatory T cell (Th17/Treg) imbalance promoting resilience to stress-induced anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors. Brain Behav. Immun. 91:350-368. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2020.10.013.
18. 2021. Yuan, B., W. Lyu, F.F. Dinssa, J.E. Simon and Q.L. Wu. Free amino acids in African indigenous vegetables: analysis with improved hydrophilic interaction ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry and interactive machine learning. Journal of Chromatography A: 1637: 461733 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2020.461733
19. 2021. Simon, J.E., D. Acquaye, R. Govindasamy, J. Asante-Dartey, R. Juliani, B. Diouf, M. Diatta, P. Langenhoven, E. Van Wyk, N. Hitimana, D. Seidel, E. Merchant, L. Amekuze, S. Weller, D. Hoffman and Q.L. Wu. Building Community Resiliency through Horticultural Innovation. Scientia 134:13-21. https://doi.org/10.33548/SCIENTIA601
20. Li XP, Harijan RK, Cao B, Kahn JN, Pierce M, Tsymbal AM, Roberge JY, Augeri D, Tumer NE. Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Ricin Inhibitors Targeting Ribosome Binding Using Fragment-Based Methods and Structure-Based Design. J Med Chem. 2021 Oct 14; 64:15334-15348. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c01370. PubMed PMID: 34648707.
21. Setubal, R., C. L. Frasier, J. Molina, B. M. Torke, R. C. Forzza, and L. Struwe. 2021. A Toxic Story: Phylogeny and Classification of Strychnos L. (Loganiaceae). Systematic Botany 46: 639–655. DOI 10.1600/036364421X16312067913444
22. Besancon. T.E., M.H. Wasacz, and J.R. Heckman. 2021. Weed Suppression, Nitrogen Availability, and Cabbage Production Following Sunn Hemp or Sorghum-sudangrass. HortTechnology. Pages 1-9.
23. Rabinovich, Alon, Joseph Heckman, Beni Lew, Ashaki Rouff. 2021. Magnesium supplementation for improved struvite recovery from dairy lagoon wastewater. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering.
24. Li, Y., J. Heckman, A. Wyenandt, N. Mattson, E. Durner, and A.J. Both. Potential Benefits of Silicon Nutrition to Hydroponically Grown Sweet Basil. HortScience. doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI15320-20
25. Acosta, K., Appenroth, K., Borisjuk, L., Edelman, M., Heinig, U., Jansen, M., Oyama, T., Pasaribu, B., Schubert, I., Sorrels, S., Sree, S., Xu, S., Michael, T., and Lam, E. (2021) Return of the Lemnaceae: Duckweed as a Model Plant System in the Genomics and Post-genomics Era. The Plant Cell 33(10):3207-3234.
26. Antonelli, A., J. J. Clarkson , K. Kainulainen, O. Maurin, G. E. Brewer, A. P. Davis, N. Epitawalage, D. J. Goyder, T. Livshultz, C. Persson, L. Pokorny, S.C.K. Straub, L. Struwe, A. R. Zuntini, F. Forest, W. J. Baker. 2021. Settling a family feud: A high-level phylogenomic framework for the Gentianales based on 353 nuclear genes and partial plastomes. American Journal of Botany 108:1143-1165. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1697
27. John McLaughlin Assistant Research Professor in Professor Nilgun Tumer's lab article "A Lipid Transfer Protein has Antifungal and Antioxidant Activity and Suppresses Fusarium Head Blight Disease and DON Accumulation in Transgenic Wheat”, was selected by the journal as the April editor's pick and written up by The British Society for Plant Pathology here: https://www.bspp.org.uk/scientists-discover-a-protein-that-naturally-enhances-wheat-resistance-to-head-scab/
28. X. Zhang, Y. C. Low, M. A. Lawton, J. E. Simon and R. Di. 2021. CRISPR-editing of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) homoserine kinase gene for improved downy mildew disease resistance. Frontiers in Genome Editing-Genome Editing in Plants 3:629769. DOI:10.3389/fgeed.2021.629769.
29. Gurdon, Cs., Kozik, A., Tao, R., Poulev, A., Armas, I., Michelmore, R. W., Raskin, I. Isolating an active and inactive CACTA transposon from lettuce color mutants and characterizing their family. Plant Phys., Advance article, 2021.
30. Cheong, K. Y., Firlar, E., Ficaro, L., Gorbunov, M. Y., Kaelber, J., & Falkowski, P. G. (2021). Saturation of thylakoid‐associated fatty acids facilitates bioenergetic coupling in a marine diatom allowing for thermal acclimation. Global Change Biology.

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Awards and Honors

1. The following graduate students won awards at the C-5 Division Graduate Student Competition Awards were presented on Wed., Nov. 12, 2021 at the Annual Meeting of the Crop Science Society in Salt Lake City, Utah
   Cathryn Chapman
   2nd Place in the Genetics Oral Presentation Category
   Title: “Genotypic Variation in Heat Tolerance for Hard Fescues”
   Advisor: Dr. Bingru Huang
   
   William Errickson
   First Place: Turfgrass Genetics Oral Presentation (C5 Turfgrass Division)
   Title: “Rhizobacteria-Promoted Root Growth in Creeping Bentgrass in Association with Regulation of Root Metabolism During Drought and Post-Drought Recovery”
   First Place: Oral Presentation (C2 Crop Physiology and Metabolism Division)
   Title: “Rhizobacteria-Enhanced Drought Tolerance and Post-Drought Recovery of Creeping Bentgrass Involving Modulation of Plant Metabolism”
   Advisor: Dr. Bingru Huang
   
   Zhongqi (Mercer) Xu
   3rd Place in the Golf Poster Presentation Category
   Title: “Soil pH effect on anthracnose of annual bluegrass”
   Advisors: Dr. James Murphy and Dr. Bruce Clarke
   
   Stephanie Rossi
   3rd Place in the Genetics Poster Presentation Category in the Turfgrass Physiology, Molecular Biology and Genetics Poster competition
   “Improvement of Heat Tolerance in Creeping Bentgrass by Sitosterol Involving Regulation of Antioxidant Metabolism”
   Advisor: Dr. Bingru Huang
   
   Brandon McNally
   2nd Place in the Turf Oral Presentation Category in the Division of Turfgrass Science
   Annual Bluegrass and Creeping Bentgrass Tiller Response to Phosphate Fertilizer and Soil pH When Grown in Competition"
   Advisor: Dr. Matt Elmore
2. Oren Rabinowitz, a Ph.D. student in the Raskin Lab, was one of 20 selected Research Fellows for the 2021 Momental Foundation Mistletoe Research Fellowship out of 330 international applicants. The Foundation awards the Mistletoe Research Grant for $10,000 in unfettered funding and partners the selected Fellow with a venture-capital funded startup in the Fellow's discipline for a year-long R&D collaboration on product development. Oren would like to thank Dr. Raskin, Dr. Bennett, and Dr. Simon, as well as Dr. Huang and Dr. Kobayashi for their support of his successful application. See https://www.momentalfound.org/ for more information.
3. On July 23, 2021 The Chrysler Herbarium team (consisting of Dr. Lena Struwe and Megan King) from Rutgers won the inaugural Botany Trivia game against many other university and museum teams at the Botany 2021 Virtual! Conference.
4. Dr. Joan W. Bennett was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
5. Dr. Ilya Raskin has received award in the amount of $24,834 from Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) for funding of project “Conservation of Indonesian endangered plant resources for human health: Enhancing scientific capacity and strengthening science-based policymaking in Indonesia”. Using knowledge transfer, the goal of this project is to help position Indonesia as world pioneer in collecting, cataloguing, preserving and studying the biochemical diversity of its flora for human health and wellness, as well as help strengthen links between Indonesian policymakers, conservationists and scientists with the aim of establishing long-term collaborations which may lead to improved conservation policies.
6. Sarah Skubel, graduate student in Dr. Ilya Raskin laboratory, was a second-time recipient of Botany in Action 2021 award from Pittsburgh Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. The $5,000 award will support her research on environmental impact on antibacterial activity in plants. Read story at: https://www.phipps.conservatory.org/green-innovation/for-the-world/botany-in-action/current-fellows/
7. Graduate student Glen Groben received 1st place award at the 2021 virtual Northeastern Division of APS annual meeting for his oral presentation titled “Distribution of Dollar Spot Fungus in Asymptomatic and Symptomatic Turfgrass.” Authors:
   Glen Groben1, Bruce Clarke1, James Murphy1, Patrick Purdon1, Paul Koch2, Ning Zhang1,3 1 Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 U.S.A. 2 Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706 3 Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 U.S.A.
8. Graduate student Pingyuan Zhang received 3rd place award at the 2021 virtual Northeastern Division of APS annual meeting for his oral presentation titled “Action Thresholds of a Logistic Regression Model for Fungicide Control of Dollar Spot on Creeping Bentgrass.”
   Authors:
   Pingyuan Zhang, Daniel Ward, James Murphy, Bruce Clarke
   Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 U.S.A.
9. Graduate students from Dr. Thierry Besançon's lab won the following awards.
   Third Place, Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Contest
   “Quantifying Vegetable Crop Response to Simulated Dicamba Drift Rates using Image Analysis Techniques” Weed Science Society of America Annual Meeting, Virtual via Virtual Event Place.
   Second Place, Graduate Student Lightning Talk Contest
   “Imaging Analysis to Quantify Leaf Deformation in Response to Sublethal Rates of Dicamba” Northeastern Plant, Pest, and Soils Conference, Virtual via Pathable.
   Honorable Mention, Graduate Student Oral Paper Contest
   “Crop Response to Simulated Dicamba Drift in Field-grown Snap Beans” Northeastern Plant, Pest, and Soils Conference, Virtual via Pathable.
   First Place, Northeastern Weed Science Society Photo Contest
   “Asiatic dayflower” Northeastern Plant, Pest, and Soils Conference, Virtual via Pathable
   
10. Grant Title: Bentgrass cultivar and autumn-applied fungicide timing effects on spring suppression of dollar spot. PI Name: James Murphy
    Co-PIs: Bruce B. Clarke, PhD; Ning Zhang, PhD; Pingyuan Zhang, MS; Glen Groben Sponsor: U.S. Golf Association funded proposal for $30,000 per year in 2021 and 2022 for a total of $60.000. Description: The overall goal of this research project is to develop a series of best management practices for the control of dollar spot disease on golf course fairway turf. The specific objectives for this proposal include evaluating 1) timing of autumn-applied fungicide, 2) disease tolerance in the host plant, and 3) antecedent inoculum load during autumn for effects on the onset and progress of dollar spot on bentgrass turf during the subsequent spring. Insight from this research will provide recommendations to reduce reliance on conventional fungicide practices to manage dollar spot disease, encourage adoption of disease tolerant turfgrass cultivars, and provide estimates on long-term costs savings to golf course superintendents considering renovation with new cultivars.
11. Stacy Bonos received the American Society of Agronomy Fellow award in November of 2020. The Fellow is the highest recognition bestowed by the American Society of Agronomy.
    Agronomy.org Bonos Award.

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Speaking Invitations and Conferences

• Dr. Lena Stuwe presented the following at the international conference Botany 2021 Virtual!, 19-23 July 2021 Schmidt, R., M. King, & L. Struwe. 2021. Ballast species and herbarium records: The impact of historical shipping trade on the recent-past and contemporary flora of Northeastern United States. Botany 2021 virtual conference, July 19-23, 2021.
• Smith, A., E. L. Stanley, L. Struwe, N. Garcia, D. E. Soltis, & P. S. Soltis. 2021. Floral vascular architecture: Nectar spurs in the nasturtiums (Tropaeolum). Botany 2021 virtual conference, July 19-23, 2021.
• Struwe, L. 2021. Specimen Stories: Student exploration of places, plants, and people using herbaria. Botany 2021 virtual conference, July 19-23, 2021.

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Books and Book Chapters

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