Graduate student accomplishments
Archive

2013-2014

Fellowships, grants, and scholarships

Benning, John

  • Received CBS Excellence Fellowship 2013-14

Center, Alyson

  • IonE Mini Grant for “Science Conversations” at the Midtown Farmer’s Market for summer 2014

  • PBS Sumer Fellowship, 2013

Chen, Jin

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

  • 21st Century Tessman Graduate Fellowship

Dorn, Kevin

  • Hamm Scholarship

Epstein, Brendan

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Erlandson, Stephanie

  • Carolyn Crosby, January, 2013

  • Dayton-Wilkie Fellowship, 2013

  • NSAAP Travel Grant, 2013

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Eule-Nashoba, Amber

  • Dayton Wilke Fellowship

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Fallon, Beth

  • Dayton Bell Museum Fellowship 2013

  • Southwestern Research Station (Amer. Mus. of Nat. History) Research Scholarship 2013

  • Plant Biological Sciences (University of Minnesota) Summer Fellowship 2013

  • ESA Physiological Ecology Research Travel Award 2014

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Fang, Zhou

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Hillmer, Rachel

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

  • Keystone Symposia Scholarship

  • Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 2014-2015

Grandt, Kristin

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Krumholz, Elias

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Li, Xin

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Martin, Amanda (Cece)

  • Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Summer Fellowship

McClellan, Moana

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Nedveck, Derek

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

  • Dayton Bell Museum Fund Fellowship, 2014

  • NSF-GRFP; Honorable Mention

  • Scholarship application for tuition at the 2014 Summer Institute for Statistical Genetics in Seattle

Nelson, Michael

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Palani, Nagendra

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Riddle, Jakob

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Smit, Christina

  • James W. Wilkie Fund for Natural History Fellowship

Taylor, Margaret

  • AAAS Mass Media Fellowship (awarded; Taylor declined)

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Treiber, Erin

  • Bernard and Jean Phinney Graduate Fellowship in Plant Molecular Biology

  • 2013 Joyce Davenport Summer Fellowship

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Trujillo, Diana

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Vincent, John

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Waters, Amanda (Mandy)

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Werden, Leland

  • Carolyn Crosby Fellowship

  • IonE Mini-Grant: Demonstrating the viability of unmanned aerial vehicle technology for monitoring and observing free-ranging wildlife

  • Garden Club of America Fellowship in Restoration

Wilson, Michael

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Yakub, Mohamed

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

  • IDF Fellowship

  • Crosby Fellowship, 2013

  • Dayton Wilkie Fellowship, 2013

  • Dissertation Improvement Grad NSF DDIG

X, Yuan

  • PBS Summer Fellowship, 2013

Meetings and Poster Presentations

Benning, John

  • Poster at Evolution 2014 in Raleigh, NC

  • Poster at ESA 2013 in Minneapolis, MN

Center, Alyson

  • Poster at Ecological Society of America Conference in Minneapolis, MN – Differentiation of physiological traits among tropical live oak populations throughout dry forests of Central America

Dorn, Kevin

  • Plant and Animal Genome XXII Conference.  ‘Genomics-based improvement of the winter biofuel crop field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense),’ San Diego, CA

  • Nara Institute of Science and Technology International Student Workshop.  ‘Genomics and Domestication of the Winter Oilseed Species Filed Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense),’ Ikoma, Japan

  • University of Minnesota Plant Biological Sciences Annual Retreat, “De novo assembly of pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) transcriptome provides new tools for the development of a cover crop and biodiesel feedstock,” St. Paul. MN

Fallon, Beth

  • Functional differentiation among seven ecologically-stratified oak (Quercus) species in southeastern Arizona.  2013 Ecology Society of America

Fankhauser, Johnathon

  • Yeast 2013 Poster Nov2013 Frankfurt Germany, “Decoding the genetic changes in experimentally evolved yeast”. Frankhauser, Ratcliff, Travisano

Guhlin, Joseph

  • Plant and Animal Genome Conference, San Diego, CA (2014). ODG: A Graph Database Generator for Omics Data. Joseph Guhlin, Kevin AT Silverstein, Peng Zhou, Shaun Curtin, Roxanne Denny, Trevor Wennblom, Nevin D, Young.

  • Plant and Animal Genome Conference, San Diego, CA (2014). A genome engineering toolbox for legume functional genomics (2014). Curtin SJ, Denny R, Guhlin J, Michno JM, Campbell BW, Donohue RC, Cermak T, Christian M, Atkins P, Baltes N, Starker C, Zhang Y, Yiping Q, Tiffin P, Voytas DF, Stupar RM and Young ND

Hillme, Rachel

  • Keystone Symposium: “Plant Signaling: Dynamic Properties (B1)”, Feb. 5-10, 2014, Breckenridge, CO. “Strength Without Stiffness: How the Plant Immune Signaling Network Achieves Both Robustness and Tunability.” Co-authors: Yungil Kim, Kenichi Tsuda, Daisuke Igarashi, Hitoshi Sakakibara, Chad L. Myers, Fumiaki Katagiri

Li, Xin

  • 12/03/2013-12/05/2014. 2013 National Fusarium Head Blight Forum, Milwaukee, WI. “Transgenic wheat carrying a barely UDP-glucosyltranferase exhibit high levels of Fusarium head blight resistance by detoxifying trichothecenes”. Xin Lin, Sanghyum Shin, Shane Heinen, Ruth Dill-Macky, Franz Berthiller, Thomas Clemente, Susan McCormick and Gary Muehlbauer

Lor, Vai

  • Poster Presentation at the Plant Biology 2013 meeting, July 20-July 24, 2014, Providence, RI. Characterization of the role of SPINDLY and SECRET AGENT interactions with DELLAs in gibberellin signaling in Solanum lycopersicum. Co-authors: Colby G. Starker, Daniel F. Voytas, David Weiss, and Neil E. Olszewski

Lu, You

  • Poster presentation  in American Phytopathology Society meeting in Texas during August 2013

Muller, Katherine

  • Muller, K.E.,S. Wagenius. Interactions between a prairie perennial and it specialist aphid. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, 2013. Minneapolis, MN. ???? (it doesn’t say if it is a poster or a talk.)

Smith, Christina

  • 2013. Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (San Jose, Costa Rica). Poster title: Effects of soil type and light availability on growth and biomass partitioning of 22 species of tropical dry forest tree seedlings. Co-authors: E. Bergstrom, K.K. Becklund, L.M. Becknell, M.G. Gei and J.S. Powers

Taylor, Margaret

  • PBS Retreat –May 2013. “Transport Activity and Localization of the Oryza sativa AAPs.” Co-author: John Ward. Como Conservatory

Treiber. Erin

  • Treiber, E. L.,Gaglioti, A. L., Weiblen, G.D.Resolving Relationships in Tribe Cecropieae (Urticaceae): Implications for Reconstructing Ant Associations in Cecropia, Evolution 2013, June 21-25, 2013, Snowbird, Utah

  • Treiber, E. L., Weiblen, G.D.and Madrinan, S., Exploration of sequence variation for resolving the phylogeny of the neotropical genus Cecropia, Botanical Society of America meeting, July 27-August 1, 2013, New Orleans, Louisiana

Trujillo, Diana

  • Poster at PBS Annual Retreat

Waters, Amanda (Mandy)

  • Annual Maize Genetics Conference, China

Werden, Leland

  • Werden, L. K., J. M. Becknell and J.S. Powers. 2013. Using forest inventory data to define life history strategies of tropical dry forest tree species. Poster at 2013 Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation Annula Meeting. San Jose, Costa Rica, June 2013

  • Werden, L.K., J.M. Becknell and J.S. Powers. 2013. Defining life history strategies of tropical dry forest tree species: Implications for future restoration projects. Poster at 2013 Society for Ecological Restoration Meeting. Madison, WI, October 2013

Yu, You

  • 21st Conference of the International Plant Growth Substances Association-poster “Indole Mtabolomics: Identification and Quantification of IAA related indolic compounds”

Other

Center, Alyson

  • Taught a biology course at St. Olaf college for Spring semester 2014 

  • Taught tropical ecology course in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands in January 2014

Eule-Nashoba, Amber

  • Supervised three undergraduates during the 2013 filed season, as well as several additional greenhouse helpers

Taylor, Margaret

  • Wrote several science-related articles for the CBS website

  • Editor on the PBS Newsletter “Medium”

  • Phytograd Vice President

Treiber, Erin

  • Participated in an Ant Course in Peru

  • Served on search committee for Plant Path/Bell Museum new hire

  • Attended a course on data basing at the American Museum of Natural History

  • Served as graduate student on the search committee for the joint Plant Pathology/Bell Museum position

Outreach Activities

Benning. John

  • Volunteered for Teach Smart

Center, Alyson

  • Gave a talk to at risk youths at a local high school in St. Paul/Mpls

  • Created and taught a continuing education course for the general public “Ecology in your backyard”

Yakub, Mohamed

  • Judged at Science Olympiad (national science competition for mid and high students)

  • Elected to serve on the MN Science Olympiad Board

Papers

Benning, John

  • Submitted Lyonia and Burkina Faso ABM papers

Publications

Dorn, Kevin

  • Dorn, Kevin, K.M, Fankhauser, J.D., Wyse, D.L., Marks, M.D.  2013. De novo assembly of the pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) transcriptome provides tools for the development of a winter cover crop and biodiesel feedstock.  The Plant Journal.  Volume 75. Issue 6, p. 1028-1038

  • Dorn, KevinK.M.,Fankhauser J.D., Wyse D.L., Marks M.D. 2013. De novo assembly of higher eukayotic genomes on desktop computers. (In Review)

Erlandson, Stephanie

  • Erlandson. Contributing author in: Stanton-Geddes et. al. 2013.  Candidate genes and genetic architecture of symbiotic and agronomic traits revealed by whole-genome sequence-based association genetics in Medicago truncatula.  PLoS ONE 8:e65688.

Eule-Nashoba, Amber

  • Fang Z, Eule-Nashoba A, Powers C, Kono TY, Morrel PL, Smith KP (2013). Comparative analyses identify the contributions of exotic donors to disease resistance in a barley experimental population. G3 3: 1945-1953.

Fallon, Beth

  • Studd, S.E., S. Drake, M. Villarreal, E. Fallon, and L.L. Crumbacher. 2013. Vegetation inventory, mapping, and classification report, Fort Bowie National Historic Site.  Natural Resource Report NPS/SODN/NRR-2013/673. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado

Fankhauser, Johnathon

  • Dorn, Kevin, K.M,Fankhauser, J.D., Wyse, D.L., Marks, M.D.  2013. De novo assembly of the pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) transcriptome provides tools for the development of a winter cover crop and biodiesel feedstock.  The Plant Journal.  Volume 75. Issue 6, p. 1028-1038

  • Dorn, KevinK.M., Fankhauser J.D., Wyse D.L., Marks M.D. 2013. De novo assembly of higher eukayotic genomes on desktop computers. (In Review)

  • Ratcliff, WC, JD Fankhauser, David W. Rodgers and M Travisano. The origin of multicellular evolvability. (In Review)

  • Fankhauser, JD, WC, Ratcliff, and M Travisano, 2014, Genomic sequencing and transciptomics reveals convergent paths to multicellularity in experimentally evolved Saccharomyces cerevisiae. (In Prep)

Fang, Zhou

  • Fang Z, Eule-Nashoba A, Powers C, Kono TY, Morrel PL, Smith KP (2013). Comparative analyses identify the contributions of exotic donors to disease resistance in a barley experimental population. G3 3: 1945-1953.

Haaning, Allison

  •  A.M. Haaning, Quinn , M.E., and Ware, S.M. (2013). Heterotaxy-spectrum heart defects in Zic3 hypomorphic mice. Pediatric Research 74:494-502

Hillmer, Rachel

  • Y. Kim, K. Tsuda, D. Igarashi, R.A. Hillmer, H. Sakakibara, C.L. Myers and F. Katagiri. “Signaling mechanisms underlying the robustness and tenability of the plant immune network.” Cell Host and Microbe, 15: 1, 84-94 (2014).

Jewett, Erin

  • Unger, L., Nicholson, A., Jewett, E.M., Gerber V., Hegeman, A., Sweetman, L., Walberg, S. Hypoglycin A concentrations in seeds of AcerPseudoplatanus trees growing on Atypical Myopathy-affected and control pastures. J Vet. Intern. Med

Krumholz, Elias

  • Benjamin VanderSluis, David C. Hess, Colin Pesyna, Elias Krumholz, Tahin Syed, Balázs Szappanos, Corey Nislow, Balázs Papp, Olga G. Troyanskaya, Chad L. Myers, Amy A. Caudy. Broad  metabolic sensitivity profiling of a prototrophic yeast deletion collection. (Submitted to Genome Biology) http://genomebiology.com/2014/15/4/R64/abstract.

Muller, Katherine

  • Zuber, S.T., K.E. Muller, A. Roles, R. Laushman, 2012. Hybridization between an invasive and native species of orconectes crayfish in North-Central Ohio. Journal of Crustacean Biology, Vol. 32

Nelson, Michael

  • Nelson, M.F.; Anderson, N.O. 2013. How many marker loci are necessary? Analysis of dominant marker data sets using two popular population genetic algorithms. Ecology and Evolution, 3(10): 3455-3470. DOI 10.1002/ece3.725

  • Nelson, M.F.; Anderson, N.O.; Casler M.D.; Jakubowski A.R. 2014. Population genetic structure of N. American and European Phalaris arundinacea L. as inferred from inter-simple sequence repeat markers. Biological Invasions. 16(2), 353-363 DOI 10.1007/s10530-013-0525-9

Treiben, Erin

  • Treiber, E. L., A. Gaglioti, S. Neto, S. Madrinan, and G. D. Weiblen. In prep. Molecular phylogeny of Cecropieae (Urticaceae) Systematic Biology

  • Weiblen, G. D. and E. L. Treiber. Evolutionary Origins and Diversification of Mutualism.in J. L. Bronstein, editor. Mutualism. Oxford University Press, Oxford. In Prep

Vincent, John 

  • Vincent J.B., Henning B, Weiblen G.D. Forest carbon in Lowland Papua New Guinea: Importance of Spatial variation and Small Trees. In Prep

  • Lind E., Borer E.T., Vincent J.B., Weiblen G., Cavender-Bares J. Trophic phylogenetics: evolutionary influences on traits, co-occurrence, and plant associations in grassland arthropods. In Prep

Waters, Amanda (Mandy)

  • Amanda J. Waters, Paul Bilinski, Steven R. Eichten, Matthew W. Vaughn, Jeffrey RossoIbarra, Mary Gehring, Nathan M. Springer. (2013). Comprehensive analysis of imprinted genes in maize reveals allelic variation for imprinting and limited conservation with other species.  PNAS 110(48):19639-19644

  • Steven R. Eichten, Roman Briskine, Jawon Song, Qing Li, Ruth Swanson-Wagner, Peter J. Hermanson, Amanda J. Waters, Evan Starr, Patrick T. West, Peter Tiffin, Chad L. Myers, Matthew W. Vaughn, Nathan M. Springer. (2013). Epigenetic and genetic influences on DNA methylation variation in maize populations. The Plant Cell 3:780-93

  • Irina Makarevitch, Steven R. Eichten, Roman Briskine, Amanda J. Waters, Olgn N. Danilevskaya, Robert B. Meeley, Chad Myers, Matthew Vaughn, Nathan M. Springer. (2013). Genomic distribution of maize facultative heterochromatin marked by trimethylation of H3K27. The Plant Cell. 25: 1-14

Research Awards

Dorn, Kevin

  • Graduate Research Award from the UMN Chapter of Sigma Xi

Talks

Center, Alyson

  • “Seed production timing determines fitness of young tropical live oak (Quercus oleoides) seedlings in dry forests of Costa Rica.”  Plant Biological Sciences Annual Retreat, University of Minnesota, May 2013

Dorn, Kevin   

  • Wed Science Society of Amerca Annual Meeting.  ‘Genomics and domestication of field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense),’ Vancouver, Canada

  • Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Department of Plant Biology Seminar, “Genomics and Domestication of the Winter Oilseed Species Filed Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense),” Ikoma, Japan

  • Minnesota Department of Agriculture Clean Water Seminar Series “Sustainable agriculture in  the genomics era,” St. Paul, MN

  • International Conference on Arabidopsis Research. “The use of Arabidopsis as a resource to improve field pennycress, a next generation biodiesel feedstock,” Sydney, Australia

  • University of Minnesota Plant Biological Sciences Annual Retreat.  “Developing genomic resources to improve Pennycress as a winter cover crop and biofuel feedstock,” St. Paul, MN

  • University of Minnesota Applied Plant Sciences Seminar Series, “Genomic characterization of the oilseed crop field pennycress,” St. Paul, MN

Erlandson, Stephanie

  • ESA Minneapolis. August 4-9, 2013. Species distribution modeling in a rare endemic herb: Multiple models suggest that dispersal limitation and past historical processes limit range expansion

Eule-Nashoba, Amber

  • “Intercultural Competence: What a Leader Needs to Know” February 2013. AISES Leadership  Summit.  Santa Ana Pueblo, NM and AISES Region V Conference. Morris, MN. Co- presenter Dr. Mark Bellcourt, University of Minnesota

  • “Capacity for Adaptation in a Minnesota Legueme” 14 March 2014: AISES Leadership Summit. Santa Ana Pueblo, NM and AISES Region V Conference, Minneapolis, MN

Haaning, Allison

  • Allison M. Haaning, Jonathan R. Schellenberg, Peter W. Carr, and Paul G. Boswell. “How to Quickly and Comprehensively Test your HPLC Column by LC-MS.” Minnesota Chromatography Forum, May 9, 2013. Minneapolis, MN

Hillmer. Rachel

  • Keystone Symposium: “Plant Signaling: Dynamic Properties (B1)”, Feb. 5-10, 2014, Breckenridge, CO. “Strength Without Stiffness: How the Plant Immune Signaling Network Achieves Both Robustness and Tunability.” Co-authors: Yungil Kim, Kenichi Tsuda, Daisuke Igarashi, Hitoshi Sakakibara, Chad L. Myers, Fumiaki Katagiri

Muller, Katherine

  • Muller, K.E., S. Wagenius. Interactions between a prairie perennial and it specialist aphid. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, 2013. Minneapolis, MN.

Nelson, Michael

  • Midwest Genotypes of Reed Canarygrass Harbor Significant Drought Tolerance Diversity. Oral Presentation at the 2013 Society of Wetland Scientists Annual Meeting, Duluth, Minnesota, June 2-6, 2013

Taylor, Margaret

  • Science on the Spot – December 2013. “Transport Activity and Localization of the Oryza sativa AAPs.” Co-author: John Ward. UMN campus

Vincent, John

  • Vincent J.B., Weiblen, G.D. Species-Habitat Associations of Tree Species in a Papua New Guinea Rain Forest: Substrate Disturbance and a Keystone Disperser. Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation Annual Meeting 2013, San Jose, Costa Rica. Oral Presentation

Waters, Amanda (Mandy)

  • 55th Annual Maize Genetics Conference in St. Charles, IL (March 2013) and PBS annual retreat in St. Paul, MN (May 2013) where I received an award for best poster presentation

  • Amanda J. Waters, Mary Gehring, Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, Paul Bilinski, Steven R. Eichten, Matthew Vaughn, and Nathan M. Springer. Imprinting is highly conserved among maize haplotypes.  Maize Genetics Conference Abstracts. 55:P332

Travel Awards

Benning, John

  • PBS Std. Travel Award; Evolution 2014, Raleigh, NC

Dorn, Kevin

  • North American Arabidopsis “Early Career Scientist Travel Award” to attend Int’l Conf. on Arabidopsis Research in Sydney, Australia

  • PBS Std. Travel Award; Australia

  • UMN Council of Graduate Students Travel Award to attend conference in Australia

  • MPGI Travel Award to attend conference in Australia

  • Society for Experimental Biology/company of Biologists Travel Grant to attend Plant and Animal Genome XXII

  • American Society of Plant Biologists Travel Grant to attend Plant Biology 2014 in Portland, OR

Erlandson, Stephanie

  • Thesis Research Travel Grant,  March 17, 2014

  • PBS Std. Travel Award, EAS Conference

Eule-Nashoba, Amber

  • NSAAP Travel Grant

Fallon, Beth

  • PBS Std.Travel Award 2013, Ecological Society of America

Grandt, Kristin

  • PBS Std/ Travel Award, 2013

Guhlin, Joseph

  • PBS Std. Travel Award 2013, Plant and Animal Genome Conference

Haaning, Allison

  • Exceptional PBS Travel Award; Cornell University to learn lab experiments and techniques

Hillmer, Rachel

  • PBS Std. Travel Award 2013, Keystone Symposium “Plant Signaling”

Li, Xin

  • PBS Std. Travel Award, 2013 Nat’l Fusarium Head Blight Forum

Lor, Lor

  • MPGI Travel Award, July 2012

  • PBS Std. Travel Award, July 2012

Lu, You

  • PBS Travel Award, 2013 QAm. Phytopathological Society

Martin, Amanda (Cece)

  • Thesis Research Travel Grant

Nedveck, Derek

  • PBS Std. Standard Travel Award for Evolution conference, 2013

Nelson, Michael

  • PBS Std.Travel Award, 2013

Trujillo, Diana

  • PBS Std.Travel Award, 2013; 6th Int’l Food Legume Conf. 7th Int’l Leg Genetic Genomics

Waters, Amanda (Mandy)

  • PBS Std. Travel Award

  • MPGI Travel Grant

Yakub, Mohamed

  • Thesis Travel Grant

Yu, Peng

  • PBS Std. Travel Award; Metabolomics 2014 Conference in Tsuruoka, Japan

  • TUM University Foundation Fellowship (TUM Technische Universitat Munchen in German 

Workshops

Trujillo, Diana

  • JCVI Plant Bioinformatics Workshop supported by NSF Plant Genome Grant


2011-2012

Jessica Biever (Gary Gardner, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:PBS Summer Travel Award, MPGI Travel Grant, PBS Summer Fellowship

Meetings & Publications:International Symposium on Plant Photobiology (ISPP) – Beiing, China, July 2-6, 2011, Poster presentation.

ASPB Annual Meeting – Minneapolis, MN, August 6-10, 2011 Poster presentation and Invited mini symposium talk.

Biever J., Gardner G. and Brinkman D. (2011) Are photomorphogenic responses to UV-B theconsequences of DNA damage?. Abs # M0602, P11005, Annual Meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists, August 6 – 10, 2011, Minneapolis, MN.

Jing Chen (Adrian Hegeman, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS summer fellowship

Kevin Dorn (David Marks, advisor)
Grants/Fellowships National Science Foundation GRFP Fellowship (starting June 1, 2012); University of Minnesota MPGI Travel Grant; University of Minnesota Alexander and Lydia Anderson Fellowship; Sigma Xi – Grant in Aid of Research; University of Minnesota Plant Biological Sciences Graduate Program- Exceptional Travel Grant to attend 2011 Cold Spring Harbor course “Frontiers and Techniques in Plant Science” - University of Minnesota Plant Biological Sciences Graduate Program- Standard Travel Grant to attend Plant Biology 2011 conference; University of Minnesota Plant Biological Sciences Graduate Program Summer Fellowship ; U.S. Junior Scientist Registration Funding Award from the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee for International Conference on Arabidopsis Research; University of Minnesota-CFANS Graduate Student Scholarship to attend the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council Conference; The ERM Foundation Sustainability Fellowship-Top 10 National Finalist; Ford Foundation Fellowship 2011, 2012- Honorable Mention

Meetings & Publications:
Dorn, KMand Marks, MD. “Transcriptome analysis of isolated Medicago truncatula glandular and nonglandular trichomes” In preparation.

Presentations:“Translating our understanding of trichome development from Arabidopsis to Camelina” International Conference on Arabidopsis Research 2011. July, 2011. Madison, WI.

Plant Biology 2011. Minneapolis, MN. August, 2011; University of Minnesota MPGI Annual Symposium. St. Paul, MN. November, 2011.

MPGI Science on the spot. St. Paul, MN. September, 2011.

University of Minnesota Sustainability Symposium. Dorn, KM and Marks, MD. Maximizing the yield potential of Camelina sativa for a sustainable biodiesel feedstock. 

Other: 2011 College of Biological Sciences “Outstanding Performance Award for Teaching Assistants”

Steve Eichten (Nathan Springer, advisor)
Grants/Fellowships:  PBS travel grant; PBS Phinney Fellowship - Fall 2011 semester

UMN Doctoral Dissertation fellowship (Applied) – 2/10/12.

Meetings & Publications:

Waters AJ*, Makarevitch I*, Eichten SR*, Swanson-Wagner RA, Yeh C, Xu W, Schnable P, Vaughn M, Gehring M, Springer NM. 2011. Parent-of-Origin Effects on Gene Expression and DNA Methylation in the Maize Endosperm. Plant Cell 7(1) 4221-4233.

Eichten SR*, Swanson-Wagner RA*, Schnable J, Waters A, Hermanson P, Liu S, Yeh C, Jia Y, Gendler K, Freeling M, Schnable P, Vaughn M, Springer NM. 2011 Heritable epigenetic variation among maize inbreds. PLoS Genet 7(11): e1002372. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002372

Eichten SR, Foerster J, de Leon N, Kai Y, Yeh C, Liu S, Jeddeloh J, Schnable P, Kaeppler S, Springer N. 2011. Genetic architecture of maize B73-Mo17 near isogenic lines (NILs). Plant Physiology. 156 (4):1679-1690.

Presentations:  2012 – Plant Animal Genome XX, “Heritable epigenetic variation among maize inbreds” 1/17/12 – San Diego, CA.

2011 – American Society of Plant Biologists, “Heritable epigenetic variation among maize inbreds”  8/10/11 – Minneapolis, MN.

2011 – 53rd Maize Genetics Conference, “Variation in Genome-Wide Methylation Patterns Among Maize Inbreds” 3/17/11 – St. Charles, IL.

2011 – 53rd Maize Genetics Conference, “High Resolution Mapping of B73-Mo17 Near Isogenic Lines”.

2012 – Plant Animal Genome XX, “Contribution of Epigenetic Variation to Expression Changes Among Tissues and Genotypes” 1/17/12 – San Diego, CA.

2011 – PBS Thesis Seminar, “Identification of Non Conditioned Epigenetic Variation in Maize” 10/30/11 – UMN.

Other:  Bioinformatics workshop – U-Texas: Austin.

Brendan Epstein (Peter Tiffin and Mike Sadowsky, advisors)

Meetings & Publications: Plant Biology Department Retreat - May 2011;  "Patterns of diversity in Sinorhizobium." Authors: Brendan Epstein, Antoine Branca, Joann Mudge, Arvind Bharti, Nevin Young, Peter Tiffin, and Michael Sadowsky.

Gave a presentation at the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution meeting in Dublin this June.

AsplenMK,BrunsE,DavidAS,DenisonRF,EpsteinB,KaiserMC,KaserJM,LacroixC,MohlEK,QuiramG,PrestcottK,Stanton-GeddesJ,VincentJB,WraggPD,MayG.2012.Dotrade‐offshaveexplanatorypowerfortheevolutionoforganismalinteractions?Evolutioninpress.

EpsteinB,BrancaA,MudgeJ,BhartiAK,BriskineR,FarmerA,SugawaraM,YoungND,SadowskyMJ,TiffinP.  Populationgenomicevidenceforwidespreadselectiononsymbiosis-relatedgenesinthemutualisticrhizobiaSinorhizobiummelilotiandS.medicae.BeingrevisedforresubmissiontoPLoSGenetics(firstsubmissionfavorablyreviewedandresubmissioninvited).

Stanton-GeddesJ,PaapeT,EpsteinB,YoderJ,BriskineR,MudgeJ,BhartiAK,FarmerA,ZhouP,DennyR,MayG,ErlandsonS,SugawaraM,SadowskyMJ,YoungND,TiffinP.Sequencebasedgenome-wideassociationstudyoftheMedicagotruncatula-Sinorhizobiummutualism.(inprep.;expectedsubmissiontoN).

Beth Fallon (Jeannine Cavender-Bares, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: Carolyn Crosby Fellowship & Grant

Kai-Ting Fan (Bill Gray, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Travel Award (2011)

Presentations: 2011-International Conference on Arabidopsis Research.“Dynamics of SCFTIR1/AFB ubiquitin ligase”June, 2011. University of Wisconsin-Madison.

2011- The American Society of Plant Biologist.  “Dynamics of SCFTIR1/AFB ubiquitin ligase”.  Minneapolis Convention Center. 8/6-11/2011. Minneapolis, MN.

Zhou Fang (Peter Morrell, advisor)
Publications:Zhou Fang, Tanja Pyhäjärvi, Allison L. Weber, R. Kelly Dawe, Jeffrey C. Glaubitz, José de Jesus Sánchez González, Claudia Ross-Ibarra, John Doebley, Peter L. Morrell, Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra. Megabase-scale Inversion Polymorphism in the Wild Ancestor of Maize. Genetics (accepted).

Other: 16th Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics, University of Washington, June 2011.

Johnathon Fankhauser (Mike Travisano, advisor)
Publications:  Bálint M., Tiffin P., Hallström, B., O’Hara R.B. , Olson M.S.,FankhauserJ.D., Piepenbring M.,Schmitt, I.2012. Host genotype shapes the foliar fungal microbiome of balsam poplar. Submitted to the New Phytologist.

Van Den Boom P., Giralt, M., Fankhauser J.D., Moberg  R. Lichens of Panama, biodiversity in Physciaceae (Ascomycota). 2012 Submitted to Glalia.Bálint M., Fankhauser, J.D., Tiffin, P., Hallström B.,  O’Hara R.B., Schmitt, I. 2011. Assessing diversity of leaf-associated fungal communities on balsam poplar by 454 pyrosequencing. Inoculum, Vol. 62, No. 3. (2011), pp. 8-8.

Presentations: Fankhauser J.D., Elix J.A., Schmitt I., Lumbsch H.T. 2012: Identification oflichen compounds using liquid chromatography. Oral presentation at the 7thInternational association of lichenology symposium: Bangkok, Thailand.

Van Den Boom P., Giralt M., Fankhauser J.D., Moberg R. 2012: Physciaceae of panama. Poster presentation at the 7th International association of lichenology symposium: Bangkok, Thailand.

Fankhauser J.D. Weiblen G.D., Schmitt I, Ballhorn D. J., , Treiber E., May G. 2011: Biodiversity of PNG fungal endophytes. Invited lecture (by: Dr. Vojtech Novotny and Dr. Jan Leps) at the University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic: Tropical Biology field course. The New Guniea Binatang Research Center: Madang, PNG.

Fankhauser J.D. Weiblen G.D., Schmitt I, Ballhorn D. J., , Treiber E., May G. 2011: Biodiversity of PNG fungal endophytes. Invited lecture (by: Dr. Teatulohi Matainaho) at the University of Papua New Guinea: Port Moresby, PNG

Fankhauser J.D., Weiblen G.D., Schmitt I, Ballhorn D. J., Treiber E., May G. 2011: Biodiversity of PNG fungal endophytes. Oral presentation at the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups Program meeting: Salt Lake City, Utah.

Other: Student Delegate Award and Workshop invitation, 2012 7th Internationalassociation of lichenology symposium (IAL7): Bangkok, Thailand andGraphidaceae workshop: Tarat, Thailand.

Walter M. Fitch Award Finalist. Invited to speak at the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution meeting in Dublin Ireland June 2012. Title: Decoding the genomic and transcriptional changes underlying the transition to multicellularity in experimentally-evolved Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Rosanne Healy (David McLaughlin, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:Dayton and Wilkie Fellowship, PBS Travel Award to attend the annual meeting of the Mycological Society of America in Fairbank, Alaska.  

Meetings & Publications:

Kumar, TK, RA Healy, JW Spatafora, M Blackwell, and DJ McLaughlin. 2012 Orbilia ultrastructure, character evolution and phylogeny of Pezizomycotina. Mycologia 104: 462-476.

Kovács, GM, JM Trappe, AM Alsheikh, K Hansen, RA Healy, P Vági 2011. Terfezia disappears from the North American truffle mycota as two new genera and Mattirolomyces species emerge. Mycologia 103: 831-840.

Bonito, G, G. Guevara, J. Trappe, E. Cázares , G. Williams , R. Healy , C. Schadt , R. Vilgaly. New North American truffles (Tuber spp.) and their ectomycorrhizal associations. Under peer review for Mycologia.

Presentations:

Healy, RA. 2011 Phylogenetic diversity and molecular ecology of asexual spore mats in ectomycorrhizal Pezizales. The annual meeting of the Mycological Society of America, Fairbanks, Alaska, Aug. 2011.

Other: Student mentoring an REU student in McLaughlin Lab for Spring, 2012; Peer Review for mycological journals 2012 - Article for Mycologia, Fall 2011  and Article for Mycotaxon, Spring 2012.

Jo Heuschele (Florence Gleason, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Fellowship (2011)

Presentations:  American Society of Plant Biologist, Minneapolis, MN 6th – 10th August, 2011 “Dormancy regulation in Potamogeton crispus turions”.

Rachel Hillmer (Fumiaki Katagiri, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Training Grant

Stipend in Biotechnology. Lead: Wei-Shou Hu, Chemical Engineering, University of Minnesota.

Meetings & Publications:

 Plant Biological Sciences Retreat, May 16, 2011. St. Paul, MN.

"Death, Disease, and Defective Plants."  Authors: Rachel Hillmer, Fumi Katagiri (advisor).

Microbial and Plant Genomics Institute Retreat, November 19, 2011. St. Paul, MN.  "Death, Disease and Defective Plants."  Authors: Rachel Hillmer, Fumi Katagiri (advisor).

Other:  Attended the Cold Spring Harborcourse "Frontiers and Techniques in Plant Science,"  July 1-21, 2011at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories.  Accepted by Mendel Biotechnology (Hayward, CA), to do a 2 -- 2.5 month internship this summer, Summer 2012 in Hayward,California, working as a computational analyst, and dealingwith several RNA-Seq data sets they are generating. 

Xin Li (Gary Muehlbauer, advisor) 

Grants/Fellowships: PBS summer research fellowship, PBS travel grant.

Meetings: American Society of Plant Biology Annual Meeting. 2011, Minneapolis, MN. International Conference of Arabidopsis Researches. 2011, Madison, WI.

You Lu (Jane Glazebrook, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  Monsanto Fellowship

Meetings: American Society of Plant Biologists 2011 conference in Minneapolis. Poster presentation.
PowerPoint presentation at Monsanto headquarter in St. Louis on Feb. 3, 2012.

Amanda Cece Martin (Adrian Hegeman and Don Wyse, advisors)
Grants/Fellowships:2011 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship; 2011 Ford Foundation Fellowship Program – honorable mention; 2011 UNCF/Merck Science Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowship Program; 2011 American Society for Horticultural Science Student Travel Grant; 2011 and 2012 American Society for Mass Spectrometry Student Assistance travel stipend; 2011 Microbial and Plant Genomics Institute, UMN Travel Grant; PBS 2011 Summer Travel Grant; PBS 2011 Summer Partial Stipend Fellowship; PBS 2012 Summer Travel Grant

Meetings & Publications:

Gillitzer P, Martin AC, Kantar M, Kauppi KL, Dahlberg S, Lis, D, Kurle J, Wyse D (2012). Optimization of screening of native and naturalized plants from Minnesota for antimicrobial activity.Journal of Medicinal Plants Research; 6(6):938-949.

Presentations:

Martin AC, Roe MR, Hegeman, AD. Evaluation of MS instrumentation and feature detection software for metabolic fingerprinting of plant extracts. Poster session presented at: The American Society for Mass Spectrometry Annual Conference; 2012 May 19-24, Vancouver, Canada.

Martin AC; DL Wyse; Hegeman AD. Characterization of biologically active Rhus typhina extract using a bioassay-linked-metabolomics method. Poster session presented at: American Society of Plant Biology Annual Meeting; 2011 August 6- August 10, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Martin AC; DL Wyse; Hegeman AD. Characterization of biologically active Rhus typhina extract using a bioassay-linked-metabolomics method. Poster session presented at: American Society for Horticultural Science Annual Conference; 2011 September 25-28, Waikoloa, Hawaii.

Martin AC; DL Wyse; Hegeman AD. Characterization of biologically active Rhus typhina extract using a bioassay-linked-metabolomics method. Poster session presented at: Microbial and Plant Genomics Institute Retreat: 2011, November 19, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minnesota.

Other: Nominated member of the CFANS Committee on Diversity and Inclusion-September 2010-present; PBS Council of graduate students representative; CBS Collegiate Delegation Lead.

Michael Nelson (Neil Anderson, advisor)
Grants/Fellowships: National Science Foundation. Integrative Graduate Education and Research; Traineeship in Introduced Species and Genotypestuition/expenses allowance; Plant Biological Sciences Travel Grant;Plant Biological Sciences Exceptional Travel Grant

Meetings & Publications:

Plant and Animal Genomics 2012 (PAG XX). January 14th – 18th. San Diego, CA.

Modeling Phalaris Population Growth, Migration, Selection, and Unbalanced Sampling

Using Simulated Dominant Marker Data.

Poster. Michael F Nelson and Neil O Anderson - Molecular Ecology 2012. February 4th – 7th. Vienna, Austria. Genetic Differentiation of Phalaris arundinacea Using ISSR Markers and Simulations to Model Dispersal.

Poster. Michael F Nelson and Neil O Anderson - Modeling Phalaris Population Growth, Migration, Selection, and Unbalanced Sampling Using Simulated Dominant Marker Data. Poster. Michael F Nelson and Neil OAnderson - Genetic Differentiation of Phalaris arundinacea Using ISSR Markers and Simulations to Model Dispersal. Poster. Michael F Nelson and Neil O Anderson.

Kerrie Sendall (Peter Reich, advisor)

Meetings & Publications:
Ecological Society of America, August 2012, Portland OR, Ontogenetic variation in whole-plant carbon balance of juvenile evergreen trees. Sendall, K.M., Lusk, C.H., Reich, P.B.

Sendall, K.S. and Reich P.B. (will be submitted to Tree Physiology in June, 2012) Variation in leaf and fine stem CO2 flux as a function of plant size:  a comparison of seedlings, saplings, and trees.

Other: June – October 2011, took the lead on all gas exchange measurements made at the B4WARMED experiment run by Peter Reich, Rebecca Montgomery, Sarah Hobbie, and others.  Organized and carried out both light saturated photosynthetic measurements, as well as temperature response curves.

Ye Sun (John Ward, advisor)
Grants/Fellowships:PBS Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, PBS Summer Fellowship, PBS Travel Fellowship, PAPMBW Travel Fellowship

Meetings and Publications:  Sun, Y.,Reinders, A., and Ward, J. Sucrose transporter OsSUT1: 3D structual prediction and identification of functionally important amino acids. Pan American Plant Membrane Biology Workshop. May 2012. Asilomar, CA.

Sun, Y., Lin Z., Reinders, A., and Ward, J. Breaching the barrier: 3D model and key amino acids of sucrose transporter proteins. American Society of Plant Biologists annual conference. Aug 2011. Minneapolis, MN.

Sun, Y., Lin Z., Reinders, A., and Ward, J. (2012). Functionally important amino acids in rice sucrose transporter OsSUT1. Biochemistry 51: 3284-3291

Sun, Y., and Ward, J. (2012). The conserved Arg188 in OsSUT1 is crucial for the substrate transport. Submitted.

Reinders, A., Sun, Y., Karvonen, K., and Ward, J. (2012). Identification of amino acids important for substrate specificity in sucrose transporters using gene shuffling. In revision.

Margaret Taylor (John Ward, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: 2011 PBS Summer Fellowship

Amanda Waters (Nathan Springer, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Fellowship; PBS Travel Grant- 54th Maize Genetics Conference in Portland, OR (Spring 2012).

Meetings & Publications

Amanda J. Waters*, Irina Makarevitch*, Steve R. Eichten*, Ruth A. Swanson-Wagner, Mary Gehring, Cheng-Ting Yeh, Patrick S. Schnable, Matthew W. Vaughn,Nathan M. Springer (2011) Parent-of-Origin Effects on Gene Expression and DNA Methylation in the Maize Endosperm.The Plant Cell. 23(12) 4221-4233 *These authors contributed equally to this publication.

Steve R. Eichten, Ruth A. Swanson-Wagner ,James C. Schnabl , Amanda J. Waters, Peter J. Hermanson, Sanzhen Liu, Cheng-Ting Yeh, Yia Jia, Karla Gendler, Michael Freeling, Patrick S. Schnable, Matthew W. Vaughn, Nathan M. Springer. 2011 Heritable Epigenetic Variation among Maize Inbreds. PLoSGenet  7(11).

Presentations:
Amanda J. Waters, Ruth Swanson-Wagner, Steve R. Eichten, Matthew Vaughn, Nathan M. Springer. 2011. Profiling DNA methylation patterns in maize inbred. Maize Genetics Conference Abstracts. 53:P291

Amanda J. Waters, Irina Makarevitch, Steve R. Eichten, Ruth A. Swanson-Wagner, Chen-Ting Yeh, Wayne Xu, Patrick S. Schnable, Matthew W. Vaughn, Mary Gehring, Nathan M. Springer. 2012. RNA-seq based discovery of novel imprinted genes in maize. Maize Genetics Conference Abstracts. 54:P306

Other: Volunteer at University of Minnesota Math and Science Family Fun Fair;Guest lecturer at Battle Creek Middle School; Science fair judge at Murray Junior High School.

Mike Wilson (Jerry Cohen, advisor)
Grants/Fellowships: Charles J. Brand Fellowship

Presentations: American Society of Plant Biology annual meeting, Minneapolis (Aug 2011); Oral presentation - American Bee Research Conference (Feb 2012); La Crosse beekeepers spring meeting; Minnesota Chromatography Forum (May 2012).

Peng Yu (Jerry Cohen, advisor)
Grants/Fellowships:  Monsanto Fellowship
Meetings & Publications:  Attended the Plant Biology 2011 and had a poster titled “Development of methods to detect and analyze IAA peptide conjugates using Or itrap mass spectrometry”. August 2011, Minneapolis. 

Keara A. Franklin,  Sang Ho Lee, Dhaval Patel, S, Vinod Kumar,  Angela K. Spartz, Chen Gu, Songqing Ye, Peng Yu, Gordon Breen, Jerry D. Cohen, Philip A. Wigge, and William M. Gray.  Phytochrome-Interacting Factor 4 (PIF4) regulates auxin biosynthesis at a high temperature.  PNAS, December 2011.

Presentations: Gave an oral presentation at the Monsanto Company about my project titled “Towards mapping cellular auxin to help understand embryogenesis and organogenesis”
Feb, 2012.

Other:   Coldsprings Harbor course, "Frontiers and Techniques in Plant Science" (July 2012).

2009-2010

Biever, Jessica (Gary Gardner, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Stipend (2008); Teaching Assistantship (Fall 2008) – Biol 2002; Foundations of Biology Part I, PBS Summer Travel Award (2009); MPGI Travel Grant (2009); PBS Summer Stipend (2009); Teaching Assistantship (Fall 2009 & Spring 2010) -  Biol 2004 Foundations of Biology Part II Laboratory

Meetings & Publications: ASPB Annual Meeting – Honolulu, Hawaii July 17 – 21, 2009

Poster presentation: Biever J., Gardner G. and Brinkman D. (2009) The role of DNA damage and repair in the UV-B response of etiolated Arabidopsis thaliana. Abs # P44017, Joint Annual Meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists and the Phycological Society of America, July 18-22, 2009, Honolulu, Hawaii. 

Center, Alyson (Jeannine Cavender-Bares, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: Recipient of the Sigerfoo scholarship to pay for the course and travel; Recipient of a CFANS Greening grant to conduct a pilot study of using compost tea as a sustainable fertilizer/pesticide alternative.

Meetings & Publications: Attended OTS Tropical Biology: An Ecological Approach Graduate Course in Costa Rica

Chakravarrty, Moumita (Nathan Springer/Robert Stupar, advisors)

Grants/Fellowships: Plant Biological Sciences Travel Grant, Summer 2009; Plant Biological Sciences Summer Stipend Fellowship, Summer 2009

Meetings: Joint annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists and the Phycological Society of America in Honolulu, Hawaii, from July 18-22, 2009.

Dykstra, Amy (Ruth Shaw, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: Minnesota Center for Community Genetics research grant, summer 2009; PBS summer fellowship, summer 2009; PBS travel grant, fall 2009; Crosby Fellowship research grant, spring 2010; Applied for the following funding: the PEO Scholar Award, Prairie Biotic Research small grant, Philip C. Hamm Scholarship, J.E. Weaver grant (the Nebraska chapter of The Nature Conservancy).

Meetings/Publications: Evolution Symposium, September 2009, University of Nebraska-Kearney: I presented a poster, “Maternal effects predominate over local adaptation in seedling emergence of Echinacea angustifolia.”

Other: Served as a Table Leader at the AP Biology Reading, held in June 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri; Served on the tuition working group of the CBS Dean’s Advisory Council; TA for BIOL 3005W, Spring 2010.

Eberle, Carrie (Alan Smith/Neil Anderson, advisors)

Grants/Fellowships:  PBS Summer Fellowship, 2009; PBS Travel Grant, Summer 2009

Other: International Plant Molecular Biology Conference, St. Louis, MO.  Poster:  Eberle, CA, NO Anderson, AD Hegeman, AG Smith.  A novel biochemical approach to identification of interspecific incompatibility factors in Nicotiana.

Eichten, Steven (Jane Glazebrook, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: Applied to US DOE Office of Science Graduate Fellowship November, 2009. Outcome will be known come end of March 2010; Received PBS Travel Grant for poster presentation at Maize Genetics Conference 2010 in Riva del Garda, Italy.

Meetings/Publications: Oral Presentation PBS 8900 Sec 003 – Graduate Seminar Class “Exploring Genomic Data: Harnessing the Power of Visualization” November 13th, 2009.

Nathan M. Springer, Steve Eichten, Alan Smith, Charles M. Papa, Steven Steinway, Shawn M. Kaeppler Characterization of a novel maize retrotransposon family SPRITE that shows high levels of variability among maize inbred lines. Maydica, March, 2010 (In Press)

Epstein, Brendan (Peter Tiffin/Mike Sadowsky, advisors)

Meetings: Evolutionary Biol Workshop in the Alps; La Fouly, Switzerland; Midwest Evolution and Ecology Conference

Fan, Kai-Ting (Bill Gray, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Fellowship, 2009

Publications: Arabidopsis IAR4 modulates auxin response by regulating auxin homeostasis, Marcel Quint, Lana S. Barkawi, Kai-Ting Fan, Jerry D. Cohen and William M. Gray. Plant Physiology 150:748-758 (2009).

He, Huang (Bill Gray, advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: Summer Fellowship, Dept. of Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, 2009

Publications: “Genetic analysis of CAND1-CUL1 interactions in Arabidopsis supports a role for CAND1-mediated cycling of the SCFTIR1 complex” Wenjing Zhang, Hironori Ito, Marcel Quint, He Huang, Laurent Noel, and William M. Gray.          
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2008 Jun 17;105(24):8470-5

Posters presented: I gave a research talk together with a poster at PBS retreat 2009

Meetings: PBS retreat 2009; MPGI retreat 2009

Healy, Roseanne (Dave McLaughlin/Imke Schmitt, advisors)

Grants/Awards: Received: A Survey of truffles and false truffles in Minnesota oak woodlands and savannas from Minnesota Department of Natural Resources June 2009; Received: Graduate Student Award from the Society of Systematic Biologists, June 2009; Received: Friends of Farlow Fellowship, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. May 2009; Received: Plant Biological Science travel award: MSA Meeting, Utah, July 2009.

Presentations: Mycological Society of America Annual Meeting, July 25-29, 2009, Snowbird, UT
Poster: Phylogenetic implications of septal pore ultrastructure in the basal Ascomycete Neolecta irregularis, Healy RA, Kumar TK, and McLaughlin, DJ

Publications:
Healy, RA, and G Kovaks. 2010. Ultrastructural observations on the ascomata and ascospores of the truffle Mattirolomyces terfezioides. Botany 88: 85-92.

Healy, RA, G Bonito, and JM Trappe. 2009. Calongea, a new genus of truffles in the Pezizaceae (Pezizales), Anales del Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid 66S1: 25-32. 

Smith, ME and RA Healy. 2009. Otidea subterranea sp. nov.: Otidea goes below ground. Mycological Research 113: 858-866

Healy, RA, RG Palmer, and HT Horner. 2009. Multicellular secretory trichome development on soybean and related Glycine gynoecia. International Journal of Plant Sciences 170:

Healy, RA, G Bonito, and G Guevara. 2009. The Truffle genus Pachyphloeus in the U.S. and Mexico: phylogenetic analysis and a new species. Mycotaxon 107: 61-71.

Healy, RA, Richard, JL, Niyo, KA, and Klich, MA. 2010. In Memoriam: Lois Hattery Tiffany 1924-2009. Mycologia. In Press.

Additional Information: I TAed  Plant, Algal and Fungal Diversity (Bio3007, Schmitt/VandenBosch) Fall 2009, and am TAing for Plant Function Laboratory (Bio3005, Olszewski/Marks) Spring 2010.

Phytograd Activities: I participated in organizing and carrying out the soup lunch with the Phytograds, and am on the minority recruitment committee.

Heuschele, Jo (Florence Gleason, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: Carolyn Crosby Research Fellowship; Midwest Aquatic Plant Management Society Research Scholarship; PBS Summer Fellowship; PBS Travel Grant

Meetings:  ASPB Annual Meeting – Honolulu, Hawaii July 17 – 21, 2009; Midwest Aquatic Plant Management Society, Indianapolis-oral presentation

Liu, Xing (Jerry Cohen/Gary Gardner, Advisors)

Grants/Awards: PBS Exceptional Travel Grant; 50% stipend waiver from Cold Spring Harbor Lab for “Molecular Techniques in Plant Science” course

Publications: Gangeeta Negi, Poornima Sukumar, Xing Liu, Jerry D. Cohen and Gloria K. Muday, Genetic dissection of the role of ethylene in regulating auxin-dependent lateral and adventitious root formation in tomato (2010), The Plant Journal: 61, 3-15

Additional Information: Take “Molecular Techniques in Plant Science” course in Cold Spring Harbor Lab, June 25-July 16, 2009

Martin, Cece (Adrian Hegeman, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station/ CFANS Graduate Research Fellowship; PBS Travel Award, 2010

McClellan, Moana (Rebecca Montgomery/Jennifer Powers, Advisors)

Grants/Fellowships: Carolyn Crosby Grant; Fullbright Fellowship, 2010-11

Nallu, Sumitha (Kate VandenBosch/Kevin Silverstein, Advisors)

Meetings: Attended a conference, the details of which are: Model Legume Congress, Asilomar from July 12-16, 2009. I presented a poster on: Role of Defensin-like (DEFL) genes in mutualism and defense mechanisms in Medicago truncatula.

Nelson, Michael (Neil Anderson, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: IGERT Fellowship

Oono, Ryoko (Ford Denison, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: Annual Evaluation Summary (April 2009-10) for Ryoko Oono; PBS Summer Fellowship; PBS Summer Travel Grant

Publications:
Published. Oono, R., Denison, R. F. & Kiers, E. T. 2009. Tansley review: Controlling the reproductive fate of rhizobia: how universal are legume sanctions? New Phytologist 183: 967-979.

In press. Weiblen, G. D., Lomascolo, S., Oono, R., & Dumont, E. R. Nutritional dimorphism in dioecious figs. Biotropica.

In press. Oono, R., Schmitt, I., Sprent, J. I., Denison, R. F. Multiple evolutionary origins of legume traits leading to extreme rhizobial differentiation. New Phytologist.

Presentations at meetings:
Evolution 2009 (June) at Moscow, ID. Oono, R. & Denison, R. F. Legume host effects on the reproductive fate of rhizobia. (oral presentation)

International Conference for Nitrogen Fixation (August) at Big Sky, MT. Oono, R. & Denison, R. F. Legume host effects on the reproductive fate of rhizobia. (poster presentation)

Pinahs, Christopher (Peter Reich, Advisor)

Publications: Kittelson, *C. Pinahs*, J. Dwyer, A. Ingersoll, E. Mans*,* J. Rieke, B. Rutman, M. Volenec. 2008. Age-structure and Genetic Diversity of Four /Quercus macrocarpa /(Michx.) Populations in Fragmented Oak Savanna Along the Central Minnesota River Valley. American Midland Naturalist 161: 301–12.

Sun, Xiaodong (Min Ni, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: 2008.

Sun, Xiaoqing (Carolyn Silflow, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: Fall 2009 MPGI travel award.

Sun, Ye (John Ward, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS summer fellowship last year.

Presentations:
Sun, Y., Reinders, A., LaFleur, K., Mori, T. and Ward, J. (2010). Transport activity of rice sucrose transporters OsSUT1 and OsSUT5. Plant Cell Physiol. 51(1):114-122

Anderson, N., Younis, A., Sun, Y. Inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) distinguish genetic differences in Lilium longiflorum Thunb. 'Nellie White' clonal ramets within and among bulb growers over years. Submitted to JASHS

Sun, Xiaoqing (Carolyn Silflow, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: MPGI travel award, 2009

Sun, Ye (John Ward, Advisor)

Grants/ Fellowships: PBS Summer fellowship, 2009

Publications:
Sun, Y., Reinders, A., LaFleur, K., Mori, T. and Ward, J. (2010). Transport activity of rice sucrose transporters OsSUT1 and OsSUT5. Plant Cell Physiol. 51(1):114-122

Anderson, N., Younis, A., Sun, Y. Inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) distinguish genetic differences in Lilium longiflorum Thunb. 'Nellie White' clonal ramets within and among bulb growers over years. Submitted to JASHS

Tian, Hui (John Ward, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  MPGI Fellowship

Presentations:  MPGI Retreat, 2009

Whitfeld, Timothy (George Weiblen, Advisor)

Awards: 2009, Deland Award for Student Research, Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. Award for thesis field work in Papua New Guinea 2009. Graduate seminar, EEB8990 (Functional Traits). Award for analysis of leaf nutrient content, for thesis project 2009. Dayton Fellowship Award, EEB. Award for fieldwork in Papua New Guinea 2009. Carolyn Crosby Fellowship, University of Minnesota. Award for fieldwork in Papua New Guinea 2009. Plant Biological Sciences Program, University of Minnesota, Exceptional Travel Award for 50 ha plot training workshop, Barro Colorado Island, Panama

Presentations: Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Bali, Indonesia, July 2010: “Phylogenetic diversity in community assembly across a New Guinea lowland rainforest light gradient”

Publications: Whitfeld, T. J. S. and G. D. Weiblen. (in press). Five new Ficus species from Melanesia. Harvard Papers in Botany

Mike Wilson (Jerry Cohen, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: Summer 2009 – PBS Travel Grant; PBS Summer Fellowship

Meetings: Summer 2009 - American Society of Plant Biologists Annual Meeting – Honolulu, Hawaii

2008-2009

Jessica Biever (Gary Gardner, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  PBS Summer Travel grant to attend American Society of Plant Biologists and Phycological Society of America in Honolulu, Hawaii, 2009. PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2008 and 2009.

Moumita Chakravarrty (Nathan Springer/Robert Stupar, Advisors)

Grants/Fellowships:  PBS Summer Travel grant to attend American Society of Plant Biologists and Phycological Society of America in Honolulu, Hawaii, 2009.  PBS Summer Fellowship 2009.

John Compton (Ford Denison, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2008 and 2009.

Brendan Epstein (Peter Tiffin, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  PBS Travel Award to attend the Workshop (Evolutionary Biology in the Alps); Summer 2009.
PBS Summer Fellowship 2009.

Nicholas Deacon (Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2008; PBS Exceptional Travel award to attend an Introduction to R for Biostatitstics in Columbus, Ohio.

Amy Dykstra (Ruth Shaw, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  Applied for the COGS travel award (pending). PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2009.

Meetings:  PBS annual retreat, May 2008, St. Paul, MN. Poster title: “Seedling recruitment of Echinacea angustifolia, a long-lived perennial native tothe fragmented North American prairies” by Amy B. Dykstra.  PBS graduate student seminar, December 2009. “Seedling recruitment in fragmented populations of Echinacea angustifolia.” Research proposal by Amy B. Dykstra.  Crown Scholars’ Symposium, April 2009, St. Bonifacius, MN. Presentation title: “Seedling emergence in fragmented populations of Echinacea angustifolia” by Amy B. Dykstra.

Publications:  Dykstra AB, Brock MT, Delph LF, and Weinig C. 2009. Sex-specific trade-offs and responses to foliar shade in the gynodioecious species Silene vulgaris (Caryophyllaceae). Int. J. Plant Sci. 170(5):000–000. In press.

Additional Information:  Served as vice-president of Phytograds during the 2008-2009 school year.  Served on the PBS Annual Retreat committee in 2008 and 2009.  Served as a Table Leader at the AP Biology Reading, held in June 2008 in Kansas City, Missouri. Volunteered as facilitator at the Evolution 2008 meeting, held in June at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.  Taught “Foundations of Biology” in the Adult and Graduate Studies program at Crown College in July, 2008, October, 2008, and March 2009.  TA for BIOL 2002 at the University of Minnesota, Spring 2009.

Carrie Eberle (Alan Smith/Neil Anderson, Advisors)

Grants/Fellowships:  Plant Biological Sciences Graduate Program Summer Fellowship 2008 and 2009; Plant Biological Sciences Travel Grant Summer 2008.    
     
Poster presentation:  Eberle, C. Gardner, N., Anderson N.O., and Smith A.G. 2008. The Transmitting Tract of Nicotiana tabacum Inhibits Interspecific Pollen Tube Growth of N. obtusifolia. Plant Biology & Botany meeting June 26- July 1, 2008, P35019. M­­erida, Mexico (poster).

Kai-Ting Fan (Bill Gray, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  PBS Summer Fellowship, 2008 and 2009.

Publications:  IAR4 modulates auxin response by regulating auxin homeostasis.  Marcel Quint1, Lana S. Barkawi, Kai-Ting Fan, Jerry D. Cohen, and William M. Gray*. Plant Physiology (In press)

Edward Gilding (David Marks, Advisor)

Publications: In progress – A reverse genetics screen of gl3-sst reveals NOECK is an important timing of development gene in trichomes.

Meetings: Attending the Plant Biology 2009 meeting in Honolulu, HI.  Will present a poster.

Other events: Planning to graduate in June 2009.  Accepted a position at the University of Queensland working on a project to optimize sorghum as a biofuel.

Sajeet Haridas (Steve Gantt, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2008 and 2009.

Huang He (Bill Gray, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: Travel grant for summer 2008 to attend 19th Int’l Conf. on Arabidopsis Research; PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2009.

Presented Poster:  19th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR) Organized by NAASC (The North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee) July23-27, 2008, Montreal, Canada.  Abstract title: “Genetic analyses of novel COP9 signalosome (CSN) mutants suggest  multiple roles for the CSN in auxin signaling” Authors: He Huang, Marcel Quint, and William M. Gray

Publications:  “Genetic analysis of CAND1-CUL1 interactions in Arabidopsis supports a role for CAND1-mediated cycling of the SCFTIR1 complex” Wenjing Zhang, Hironori Ito, Marcel Quint, He Huang, Laurent Noel, and William M. Gray.  Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2008 Jun 17;105(24):8470-5   (published)

Roseanne Healy (Dave McLaughlin/Imke Schmitt, Advisors)

Grants/Fellowships:  Proposal with Dave McLaughlin to the Minnesota Department of  Natural Resources for collecting truffles for summer 2009.  Fellowship granted from the Friends of Farlow Herbarium, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA for a week long visit in May of 2009.  Travel grant to attend the annual Mycological Society of America Meeting in summer, 2009.  Proposal to Society of Systematics Biology for a Graduate student sytematics project award. PBS Summer Fellowship 2009.

Publications:
Healy, RA, RG Palmer, and HT Horner. 2009. Multicellular secretory trichome development on soybean and related Glycine gynoecia. International Journal of Plant Sciences in press.

Healy, RA, G Bonito, and JM Trappe. 2009. Calongea, a new genus of truffles in the Pezizaceae (Pezizales), Anales del Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid in press.

Healy, RA, G Bonito, and G Guevara. 2009. The Truffle genus Pachyphloeus in the U.S. and Mexico: phylogenetic analysis and a new species. Mycotaxon 107: 61-71.

Other Activities:  Participation in Seminars, Colloquiem, speaker lunches; Phytograds – Soup lunch; Minority Recruitment Committee.  Invited to give a talk on truffles to the Minnesota Mycological Society (a local mushroom group).

Jo Heuschele (Florence Gleason, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  PBS Summer Travel grant to attend American Society of Plant Biologists and Phycological Society of America in Honolulu, Hawaii. PBS Summer Fellowship 2009.

Lingtian Kong (Tony Sanderfoot/David Marks, Advisors)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2008 and 2009.

Keunsunb Lee (Georgiana May, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2009.

Xing Liu (Jerry Cohen/Gary Gardner, Advisors)

Grants/Fellowships:  PBS travel grant; MPGI travel grant; PBS summer fellowship 2008 and 2009; PBS Exceptional Travel award to attend a workshop in Molecular Techniques in Plant Sciences.

Meetings:  Plant Sensing, Response & Adaptation to the Environment; Organization: Keystone symposia, Big Sky, Montana.  Abstract Title: Environmental Regulation of Auxin Metabolism. Authors: Xing Liu, Lana S. Barkawi, Jerry D. Cohen, and Gary Gardner.

Moana McClellan (Rebecca Montgomery/Jennifer Powers, Advisors)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2008 and 2009.

Toko Mori (Sue Gibson, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  PBS Summer Travel grant to attend the Systems Biology: Integratiave Comparative and Multi-Scale Meeting in Ames, Iowa, and the Conference on Genome Engineering in Minneapolis MN, 2009. PBS Summer Fellowship 2009.

Sumitha Nallu (Kate VandenBosch/Kevin Silverstein, Advisors)

Grants/Fellowships:  Summer Internship at Monsanto in Middleton, WI.  Project title: “Standardization and Establishment of RT-qInvader for RNA quantification”.  PBS Summer Travel Grant to attend the Model Legume Congress Meeting in Pacific Grove, California 2009; PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2009.

Michael Nelson (Neil Anderson, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowship: Graduate School Assistantship Fellowship for my first year (stipend, tuition); ISG-IGERT Graduate Training in Risk Analysis for Introduced Species and Genotypes (2 years) Graduate School Fellowship (Academic year 2008-2009); Horticulture Research Assistantship Fellowship (1 year).

Ryoko Oono (Ford Denison, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Travel Grant 2008; PBS Summer Travel Grant 2009, PBS Summer Fellowship, 2008 and 2009.

Meetings:  Evolution Conference, June 8-12, Minneapolis, MN.  Differences in legume host-effects on rhizobial benefits. R. Oono & R. Ford Denison; Ecological Society of America Conference, Aug. 3-8, Milwaukee, WI.  Differences in legume host-effects on rhizobial benefits. R. Oono & R. Ford Denison.

Christopher Pinahs (Peter Reich, Advisor)

Publications:  Kittelson, C. Pinahs, J. Dwyer, A. Ingersoll, E. Mans, J. Ricke, B. Rutman, M. Volenee. 2008.  Age-structure and Genetic Diversity of Four Quercus macrocarpa (Michx.) Populations in Fragmented Oak Savanna Along the Central Minnesota River Valley.  American Midland Naturalist 161: 301-312. PBS Summer Fellowship, 2009.

Yiping Qi (Fumiaki Katagiri, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  PBS Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship; MPGI bridge funding; PBS Summer Travel Grant to attend the 11th Int’l Conference on Molecular Systems Biology in Shanghai, China, 2009; PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2008 and 2009.

Meetings:  19th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, Montreal, Canada.

Publications:
Yiping Qi, Fumiaki Katagiri. Purification of resistance protein complexes using a biotinylated affinity tag. In: Methods in Molecular Biology, Humana Press, in preparation.

Yiping Qi, Fumiaki Katagiri. Purification of low-abundance Arabidopsis plasma- membrane protein complexes and identification of candidate components. The Plant Journal, 2009, 57(5): 932-944 (Technical Advance article).

Jessica Savage (Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Travel Grant to attend the Ecological Society of America Meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico 2008 and 2009; Graduate School Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship; Dayton-Wilkie Research Grant Summer 2009 and 2009; Association for Women in Science Fellowship Fall 2009; PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2008 and 2009.

Presentations:
Savage, J. (presenter), and J. Cavender-Bares (2008) Variation in the cold=acclimation and growth of twenty-seven North American willow (Salix) species related to their latitude of origin.  Presented at the Ecological Society of America Annual Conference, Milwaukee, WI.

Savage, J. (presenter), and J. Cavender-Bares (2008) Willow (Salix) habitat specialization and community assembly at Cedar Creek.  Presented at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Preserve Symposium, Bethel, MN.

Savage, J. (presenter), Cavender-Bares, J. and A. Verhoeven (Winter 2008) Variation in six willow (Salix) species photoprotective ability during an experimental dry-down.  Presented in Cedar  Creek Ecosystem Science Preserve Symposium, Bethel, MN.

Kerrie Sendall (Peter Reich, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: International Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship, 2008. This scholarship pays for my tuition, stipend and research costs for up to three years. PBS Summer Fellowship, 2009.

Publications:
Sendall, K.M. and Reich, P.B. Variation in leaf and fine stem CO2 flux as a function of plant size: a comparison of seedlings, saplings, and trees. Poster presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Milwaukee, WI.

Sendall, K.M. and Vourlitis, G.L. Seasonal variation in rates of photosynthesis of a tropical semi-deciduous forest of the southern Amazon Basin. Plant Physiology (in press).

Vourlitis, G.L., de Souza Nogueira, J., de Almeida Lobo, F., Sendall, K.M., de Faria, J.L.B., Dias, C.A.A. and de Andrande, N.L.R. 2008. Energy balance and canopy conductance of a tropical semi-deciduous forest of the southern Amazon Basin.
Water Resources Research 44: W03412 A. International Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship, 2008.

Xiaodong Sun (Min Ni, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  Plant Biological Sciences Summer Fellowship, 2008 and 2009; Plant Biological Sciences Travel Grant 2008.

Meetings: The 25th Annual Missouri Symposium on Plant Photobiology in May 2008, Columbia MO.

Xiaoqing Sun (Carolyn Silflow, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  PBS Summer Fellowship, 2008 and 2009; MPGI Fellowship, 2009; PBS Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Fall 2009.

Meetings:  April 2008, presented a poster at MPGI annual retreat, Minneapolis, MN); Nov 2008, presented a poster at E3 symposium 2008 (IREE annual meeting) St Paul, MN; Feb 2009, gave a talk at MPGI spring colloquium. Title: Regulation of hydrogenase gene expression in Chlamydomonas.

Ye Sun (John Ward, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS graduate student travel grant, July 2008; ASHS graduate student travel grant, July 2008; PBS Summer Fellowship, June 2008 and 2009.

Presentations:  Sun, Y., Anderson, N. and Younis, A. Inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) distinguish genetic differences in Lilium species and L. longiflorum ‘Nellie White’ clones. American Society for Horticultural Science annual conference. Orlando, Florida, July 2008.

Hui Tian (John Ward, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  MPGI fellowship for Fall 2009.

Publications: 
Jay Morris, Hui Tian, Sunghun Park, Coimbatore S. Sreevidya, John M. Ward, and Kendal D. Hirschi (2008) AtCCX3 is an Arabidopsis endomembrane H+-dependent K+ transporter. Plant Physiol 10.110, pp.108.118810

Timothy Whitfeld (George Weiblen, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  Carolyn Crosby Summer Fellowship for fieldwork expenses; Deland Award, Arnold Arboretum Harvard University for fieldwork expenses; PBS Exceptional Travel award to attend the Barro Colorado Island course in Panama City.

Heather Whittington (Jennifer Powers, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2008 and 2009; PBS Exceptional Travel award to attend the 2008 Stable Isotopes course in Ecology at the University of Utah.

Meetings:  Ecological Society of America in Milwaukee, WI.  Whittington, H., J. Cavender-Bares, A. Wilczek, and J. Schmitt.  “Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes from warmer climates display greater thermal dissipation of light energy when grown in a common garden” (poster).

Lynette Wong (Jerry Cohen/Albert Markhart, Advisors)

Grants/Fellowships: PBS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2008 and 2009.

Songqing Ye (Jerry Cohen, Advisor)

Grants/Fellowships:  PBS Summer Fellowship, 2008 and 2009; MPGI Travel award.

2007-2008

Nick Deacon (Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: NSF GK-12 Fellowship (July 2007 – June 2008); Plant Biological Sciences Graduate Stipend Fellowship: $2000 (May 2007); Plant Biological Sciences Spring Travel Grant: $700 (April 2007); University of Minnesota Dayton Wilkie

Fellowships: $840 (March 2007)

Presentations: Oral Presentation: “Population genetic structure and habitat correlations in fragmented populations of tropical live oak (Quercus oleoides) in northwestern Costa Rica”. Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation Annual Meeting (August 2007).

Publications:
Deacon NJ and Cavender-Bares J (in review) Population genetic structure correlated with environmental heterogeneity not flowering time in Quercus oleoides populations of Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Molecular Ecology

Klemens J, Deacon NJ, Cavender-Bares J (in press) Limitations to regeneration of a keystone species in the highly fragmented tropical dry forest of Guanacaste. In: Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (eds. Dirzo R, Mooney H, Ceballos G)

Other: Nominated for the College of Biological Science’s 2007 Outstanding Performance Award for Teaching Assistants. January 24, 2008; Completed the Center for Writing’s two-day TA seminar “Commenting on and Grading Student Writing” August, 28, 2007

Jenny Dechaine (Cynthia Weinig, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship 2007-08; Plant Biological Sciences Travel Grant 2007;

Publications:
B. N. Faber*, J.M. Dechaine, H. E. VanVleck, and K. Whittinghill. 2008. Scientists in the classroom: A teacher/scientist collaboration model for an elementary school. National Science Teachers Association National Conference. Boston, Massachusetts: March 27-30.  *All authors contributed equally to this presentation

J. M. Dechaine and C. Weinig. 2007. Multiple phytochromes mediate progeny germination responses to light quality in the maternal environment. American Society of Plant Biology & Botanical Society of America Joint Congress. Chicago, Illinois: July 7-11.

J. M. Dechaine, K. Whittinghill, H. E. VanVleck, N. Faber, J. Gabrych, and J. Huneke. 2007. Suggestions for multiple ways that plant biologists can work with teachers to enhance science teaching and learning in K-12 classrooms. American Society of Plant Biology & Botanical Society of America Joint Congress. Chicago, Illinois: July 7-11.

J. M. Dechaine, J. A. Johnston, M. T. Brock, and C. Weinig. 2007. Constraints on the evolution of adaptive plasticity: costs of plasticity are expressed in segregating progenies. New Phytologist 176: 874-882.

Other: Volunteers with TeachingSMART

Amy Dykstra (Ruth Shaw, Advisor)

Participation in Program Activities: During fall semester, I participated in the Community Genetics seminar, and attended the Friday noon graduate student seminar. This (spring) semester, I am attending the weekly Ecology seminar.

Phytograds: I served as one of two graduate student representatives on the Colloquium Committee this year, and was involved in the process of inviting and hosting two speakers. I helped plan and set up the greenhouse party in the fall, and am helping with the plant sale this spring. I am helping to plan the annual PBS Retreat.

Other: I have been working on a paper with Cynthia Weinig and Mark Brock, on plasticity of reproductive allocations in Silene vulgaris, a gynodioecious plant.  I taught Human Anatomy & Physiology I and II, as an adjunct professor at Crown College, St. Bonifacius, MN. I also taught Principles of Biology in the Crown College adult program.  I served as a Table Leader at the College Board’s Advanced Placement Biology reading in June, 2007.

Carrie Eberle (Alan Smith, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: Microbial and Plant Genomics Institute Travel Grant for Summer 2007, Amount: $500.00; Plant Biological Sciences Travel Grant for Summer 2008, Amount: $1000.00

Presentations:

Eberle, C., Gardner, N. and Smith A.G. 2007. The Role of the Transmitting Tract in Pollination and Interspecific Incompatibility in Nicotiana. Plant Biology & Botany meeting July 7-11, 2007, P28015. Chicago, IL. Poster.

Eberle, C. 2007. Reproductive biology in Nicotiana. The 2007 Herbaceous Ornamental Germplasm Committee Conference August 16-17, 2007. UMN-Twin Cities. Presentation.

Nelson Garcia (Ronald Philips, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: PBS Summer 2007 travel grant to attend the Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics (Amount - $520.00); Renewal of Fulbright Fellowship Grant for 2007-2008 School Year (August 15, 2007-August 3, 2008); PBS Spring 2008 travel grant to attend the 50th Maize Genetics Conference (Amount - $ 1, 000.00)

Presentations: Attended the 50th Annual Maize Genetics Conference at Washington DC on February 27- March 2, 2008 and presented a poster titled “Mapping QTLs for kernel oil content in Korean High Oil (KHO) Corn using SNP and SSR markers”

Meetings: Attended the Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA from June 18-22, 2007. Two modules were attended – Quantitative Genetics (by Bill Muir and Bruce Walsh) and QTL Mapping (by Rebecca Doerge and Zhao Bang Zheng).

Other: Graduate student representative to the PBS colloquium committee; Currently a TA for BIOL3005W Lab, Plant Function

Edward Gilding (David Marks, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: Microbial and Plant Genomics Graduate Fellowship; National Science Foundation (USA) and the National Research Foundation (Singapore) East Asian and Pacific Summer Institute Award

Presentations:  Gilding, Edward K., Marks, M. David (July 2007). “An Arabidopsis MYB is required for the coordination of developmental events during trichome morphogenesis”. Poster session at the American Society of Plant Biologists and Botanical Society of America Joint Congress, Chicago, Illinois, July 10th, 2007.

Publications:
Marks, M. D., Betancur, L., Gilding, E. K., Chen, F., Bauer, S., Wenger, J. P., Dixon, R., Haigler, C. “A new method for isolating large quantities of Arabidopsis trichomes for transcriptome, cell wall, and other types of analyses”. The Plant Journal. In review.

Lewis, J. M., Mackintosh, C. A., Shin, S., Gilding, E. K., Kravchenko, S., Baldridge, G., Zeyen, R., and Muehlbauer, G. J. "Overexpression of the maize teosinte branched1 gene in wheat suppresses tiller development" Plant Cell Reports. In press.

Marks, M. D., Gilding, E. K., and Wenger, J. P. “Genetic interaction between glabra3-shapeshifter and siamese in Arabidopsis thaliana results in trichomes with meristemoid activity“. The Plant Journal. 2007 Oct. Vol. 52(2):352-61.

Outreach/Public Service: Mentor for plantingscience.org, online; 2007-present Mentor for Murray Junior High, Falcon Heights, MN; 2005-present Teaching Assistant, BIOL 3005W Plant Function, University of Minnesota 2007.

William Haun (Nathan Springer, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: Summer stipend fellowship-2007, PBS Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for Spring semester 2008

Yadong Huang (Sue Gibson, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: Summer stipend fellowship-2007, amount received $5220.00.

Presentations: Oral presentation at Minisymposium-regulation of metabolism (invited), Plant Biology and Botany 2007 Joint Congress, Chicago, IL, USA.; Poster presentation at Plant Biology and Botany 2007 Joint Congress, Chicago, IL, USA. Huang, Y.D., Li, C.Y. and Gibson, S.I. (2007) Identification of a Protein Kinase and a RING-Finger Protein Involved in Plant Metabolic Response.

Publications:  Huang, Y.D., Li, C.Y., Biddle, K.D. and Gibson, S.I. (2008) Identification, cloning and characterization of sis7, sis9 and sis10 sugar-insensitive mutants of Arabidopsis (submitted).

Keunsub Lee (Georgiana May, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: 2007 PBS summer stipend fellowship

Presentations: 2007 MSA meeting at Baton Rouge, LA (Louisiana State University) Poster title: Competitive interactions between endophytic Fusarium verticillioides and Ustilago maydis result in reduced smut disease severity

Xing Liu (Jerry Cohen, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: Travel grant for Summer 2007 from PBS program, $700; 2007 PBS Summer Stipend Fellowship, $4,971.

Meetings: Attended Plant Biology and Botany 2007 Joint Congress in Chicago, IL on July 7 through July 11, 2007.

Other: Passed SPEAK test in April 2007.

Moana McClellan (Rebecca Montgomery, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: PBS Summer Travel Grant, 2007

Journal Citations: Cordell S., McClellan M., Yarber Carter Y., and Hadway L., “Kaupulehu Tropical Dry Forest Outplanting Program”. Endangered Species Bulletin (in press).

Rachel Mills (Ruth Shaw, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: CBS 2007 Outstanding TA Award

Meetings: Attended the Invasive Species Symposium in MN and the NASA Carbon Cycle and Climate Change meeting in MD.

Other: Accepted into the University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Program for a PhD in Biogeochemistry

Sumitha Nallu (Kate VandenBosch, Advisor)

Presentations: Poster presented at “The 20th North American Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation Conference” held at Marquette University, Milwaukee,WI from July10,2007- July 14,2007. “Defensin-like genes in Medicago truncatula: function and patterns of gene expression.”

Ryoko Oono (R. Ford Denison, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: PBS Summer Fellowship 2007 – received $4,971; PBS Travel Grant 2007 – received $700; PBS Travel Grant 2008 – received $1,035

Presentations: Ecological Society of America in San Jose , CA from August 5-10 “Legume-rhizobium symbiosis with two different life histories”

Brian Piasecki (Carolyn Silflow, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: Received Microbial and Plant Genomics Institute Fellowship that included $2000 research/travel stipend.

Presentations: Attended the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) conference entitled “The Biology of Cilia and Flagella” August 4 – 9, 2007 in Saxton’s River, Vermont. I presented a poster for the abstract entitled “The Uni2 protein is a cell-cycle regulated marker of basal bodies in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii”.

Publications:

Piasecki, B.P., LaVoie, M., Tam, L-W, Lefebvre, P.A., and Silflow, C.D. (2008) The Uni2 phosphoprotein is a cell cycle-regulated component of the basal body maturation pathway in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Molecular Biology of the Cell 19, 262-273.

Work from master’s thesis was submitted in a manuscript entitled “Cryopreservation of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: A cause of low viability at high cell density” to the journal Cryobiology.

Other: Plant Biological Sciences graduate student representative to the curriculum committee; Photo credit for an online publication on algae at The University of Minnesota; Provided a Chlamydomonas fluorescence image used on the website and poster for the upcoming Chlamydomonas meeting in France this summer; Fulbright Fellowship to Sweden for the 2008-2009 academic year.

Christopher Pinahs (R. Montgomery/P. Reich, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: PBS Summer Fellowship 2008; PBS Travel

Yiping Qi (Fumiaki Katagiri, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: PBS travel grant

Presentations: On PBS annual retreat in May 2007, gave a talk titled “Isolation and characterization of protein complexes containing the Arabidopsis disease resistance protein RPS2”; Attended the 18th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research in Beijing, China, June 20-23, 2007 and presented a poster titled “Identification of Arabidopsis proteins that associated with disease resistance protein RPS2”.

Other: Volunteered to present a poster about research for PBS Open House in 2008.

Victoria Ranua (Cynthia Weinig, Advisor)

Presentations:
"Balancing Land Use and Natural Resources" University of Minnesota Plant Biology Seminar Series; St. Paul, Minnesota. Fall 2007; "Reproductive Strategies of the MN threatened wetland plant species, Viola lanceolata" Minnesota Society for Conservation Biology Annual Conference; Lansboro, Minnesota. 08 March 2008

"Report to the City of Blaine Natural Resource Conservation Board on the reproductive strategies of the lance-leaved violet, Viola lanceolata." City of Blaine Natural Resource Conservation Board; Blaine, Minnesota, 15 April 2008.

Other: Wetland Plants of Minnesota Field Identification Techniques with Dr. Robert Mohlenbrock. Midwest Natural Resources, Inc.; St. Paul, Minnesota. September 2007; Wetland delineation in problem sites. University of Minnesota Wetland Delineator Certification Program, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 25, 2007; 2008 Wildland Firefighter Safety Refresher Training: the changing fire environment. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Bloomington, MN. 19 March 2008. (has been a federally certified wildland firefighter since 2005)

Special Recognition:  The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and Victoria Ranua just made Newsweek today. This is a follow-up article to the front-page Star Tribune article on 3 May. The tribe is doing great things in balancing development with land stewardship. By the end of the year my co-workers will be publishing the first breeding bird survey done in Minnesota along with a faunal atlas. I am working on a companion floral atlas. This work has already produced several new county records and one new state record in a urban / agriculture interface landscape (Hydrocotyle ranunculoides). We are in the process of planting native prairie species as biofuel for use in the tribe's new bio-energy plant. The tribe also has the largest green roof in the Midwest and soon to complete the second. We are exploring the benefits of a vegetated roof and involved in a trail and error process to determine which native plants will do best in this created environment.  Local based efforts are working to solve local (and global) problems.

Jessica Savage (Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: Thesis Research Grant, University of Minnesota - $1,500; Plant Biological Sciences Travel grant - $500

Presentations:
Savage, J. (presenter), Cavender-Bares, J. and A. Verhoeven. (2008) Variation in six willow (Salix) species photoprotective ability during an experimental dry-down. Presented at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Preserve Symposium, Bethel, MN.

Savage, J. (presenter), Cavender-Bares, J. and A. Verhoeven. (2007) Variation in the nonphotochemical energy dissipation of six co-occurring willow (Salix) species during an experimental dry-down. Presented at the Botanical Society of America Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.

Publications:  Savage, J., Cavender-Bares, J. and A. Verhoeven. Six willow (Salix) species photoprotective responses to drought correspond with their habitat preferences. New Phytologist.

Kerrie Sendall (advisor: Peter Reich)

Awards/Grants: Macquarie University Research Excellence Fellowship ($160,000), 2008; Plant Biological Sciences (PBS) Graduate Program Travel Grant ($750), 2008; PBS Graduate Program Summer Stipend Fellowship ($5000), 2007; PBS Graduate Program Travel Grant ($750), 2007.

Presentations:  Sendall, K. M. and P. B. Reich. Variation in leaf and fine stem CO2 flux as a function of plant size: a comparison of seedlings, saplings, and trees. Presented at the 2008 Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (CCESR) Research Symposium.

Publications:  Vourlitis, G. L., J. de Souza Nogueira, F. de Almeida Lobo, K. M. Sendall, S. R. de Paulo, C. A. Antunes Dias, O. B. Pinto, Jr., and N. L. R. de Andrade. 2008. Energy balance and canopy conductance of a tropical semi-deciduous forest of the southern Amazon Basin, Water Resources Research 44: W03412.

Xiaodong Sun (advisor: Min Ni)

Awards/Grants: PBS Travel Grant $700; PBS Summer Stipend Fellowships $4971

Presentations: Poster presentation at 18th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research in Beijing, P.R.China “Molecular and Genetic Characterization of Intermediates in Phytochrome and Cryptochrome Signaling”

Publications:  Xiaojun Kang, Yun Zhou, Xiaodong Sun, Min Ni (2007) “HYPERSENSITIVE TO RED AND BLUE 1 and its C-terminal regulatory function control FLOWERING LOCUS T expression.”  The Plant Journal 52(5) , 937–948

Xiaoqing Sun (advisor: Carolyn Silflow)

Awards/Grants: PBS Spring Travel Funding; MPGI Travel Funding; Travel funding from the 2008 Chlamydomonas meeting; PBS Summer Travel Funding

Presentations: Presented a poster titled “Regulation of hydrogenase gene expression in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii” at 29th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals in Denver, CO during May 2007; Presented a poster titled “Regulation of hydrogenase gene expression in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii” at 8th International Hydrogenase Conference in Breckenridge, CO during August 2007; Presented a poster titled “Regulation of hydrogenase gene expression in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii” at E3 Symposium (IREE annual meeting) in Minneapolis, MN during November 2007.

Lin Wang (Jane Glazebrook, advisor)

Awards/Grants: 2007 Summer fellowship; 2008 Thesis fellowship

Presentations: Plant Biology & Botany 2007 joint congress, July 7-11 Hilton Chicago

Poster presented: Arabidopsis AtCBP60 family genes are important for defense responses against Pseudomonas syringae

Tim Whitfeld (George Weiblen, advisor)

Awards/Grants: Systematics Association, Systematics Research Fund ($1,600) for field work in Papua New Guinea; PBS Travel Award ($1,000) for field work in Papua New Guinea; OIP Pre-Dissertation award ($5,000).

Projects:
Whitfeld, T. J. S. and G. D. Weiblen. 2007. Online checklist of the woody genera of New Guinea

Whitfeld, T. J. S. and G. D. Weiblen. 2008. A digital flora of New Guinea

Heather Whittington (Jennifer Powers, advisor)

Awards/Grants: PBS Summer Travel Grant, $1000

Other: University of Utah, 2008 Stable Isotopes in Ecology summer course

Lynette Wong (Albert Markhart/Jerry Cohen, advisors)

Awards/Grants: PBS Summer Travel Grant, $1000

Meetings: Presented Poster at 2007 American Society of Plant Biologists in Chicago, IL, Wong, L. Y., Cohen, J. D., and Markhart, A.; “Evidence for stress induced /in vivo/ metabolic flux of 2-phenylethyl glucosinolate in /Nasturtium officinale/ R. Br.”

Kelly Zinn (Deb Allan/Carroll Vance, advisors)

Awards/Grants: PMGI Travel Grant 1/2008; PBS Travel Grant; 2008.

Presentations:  KE Zinn, J. Liu, DL Allan, CP Vance (2008) The P1BS cis Regulatory Element is Required but not Sufficient for Expression of LaSAP1 in Phosphorus Deficient Proteoid Roots. Abstract for Plant and Animal Genome XVI Conference in San Diego, CA.

2006-2007

Wendy Clement(George Weiblen, Advisor)

Awards/Grants:  Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship; Society for the Study of Evolution Travel Grant ($750) for Evolution 2007 meeting in New Zealand; PBS Summer Travel Grant for Botany 2007 meeting in Chicago; PBS Summer Fellowship (Summer 07)

Presentations:  A fig by any other name would smell just as sweet: A study of phylogeny and floral volatile mimicry in figs and close relatives, Wendy Clement and George Weiblen, Evolution 2006, Stony Brook, NY; June 23-27, 2006

Publications:  Ronsted, N., G.D. Weiblen, W. Clement, N. Zerega, and V. Savolainen. In review. Reconstructing the phylogeny of figs (Ficus, Moraceae) to unravel the origin of fig-wasp mutualisms. Symbiosis.

Nicholas Deacon (Cavender-Bares, advisor)

Awards/Grants:  Plant Biological Sciences Graduate Stipend Fellowship:  $4734; University of Minnesota Council of Graduate Students Travel Grant:  $281; University of Minnesota Dayton Wilkie Fellowship: $1200;  University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation International Research Grant  $5000.

Presentations: Oral Presentation:  “Factors affecting the population genetic structure of Quercus oleoides in Costa Rica”.  Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting (August 2006).

Jenny Dechaine (Cynthia Weinig, advisor)

Awards/Grants: GK12 Fellowship July 2006 – June 2007 (30,000 & tuition); PBS Summer Stipend Fellowship 2006 ($1821); Plant Biological Sciences Travel Grant, June 2006 ($500); MPGI Travel Grant, June 2006 ($400)

Meetings:  Evolution 2006. Joint meeting: Society for the Study of Evolution, American Society of Naturalists, and Society of Systematic Biologists. Stony Brook, New York. June 2006

Publications:
C. Weinig, C., M.T. Brock, J. Dechaine, and S.M. Welsh. 2007. Resolving the genetic basis of invasiveness and predicting invasions. Genetica 129: 205-216.

Dechaine, J.M., J.A. Johnston, M.T. Brock, and C. Weinig. Constraints on the evolution of adaptive plasticity: costs of plasticity to density are expressed in segregating progenies.  Inreview at New Phytologist.

Volunteer: Judge at Twin Cities Regional Science Fair, February 23, 2007

Bryn Dentinger (David McLaughlin, advisor)

Awards/Grants:  April 2007 - Simons Foundation Summer Fellowship in Systematic Biology: $4628 (+ grad health insurance); April 2007 - Plant Biological Sciences Summer Fellowship: $700 to supplement the Simons Fellowship; April 2007 - Plant Biological Sciences Travel Grant: $700; July 2006 - North American Mycological Association (NAMA) Graduate Fellowship: $2000 (administered by the Mycological Society of America)

Publications: 
Celio, G. J., M. Padamsee, B. T. M. Dentinger, K. Josephson, T. S. Jenkinson, E. G. McLaughlin, and D. J. McLaughlin. Septal pore apparatus and nuclear division of Auriscalpium vulgare. Mycologia. In review.

Celio, G. J., M. Padamsee, B. T. M. Dentinger, R. Bauer, and D. J. McLaughlin. 2006. Assembling the fungal tree of life: Constructing the Structural and Biochemical Database. Mycologia 98(6):850-859.

Dentinger, B. T. M. and D. J. McLaughlin. 2006. Reconstructing the Clavariaceae using nuclear large subunit rDNA sequences and a new genus segregated from Clavaria. Mycologia 98(5):746-762.

Presentations: 
Dentinger, B. T. M. and D. J. McLaughlin. 2006. The elusive little pigs: Unraveling the taxonomy and evolution of porcini. Mycological Society of America conference, 29 Jul-03 Aug 2006. Quebec City, QC.

Dentinger, B. 2006. Systematics, biogeography, and speciation of porcini mushrooms. (oral presentation) Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference, 17-19 March 2006. St. Louis, MO.

Outreach/Public Service:
(4 Dec 2006, 30 Mar 2007) Evolution of Fungi. Guest lecture for Biodiversity and Phylogeny (BIOL170), Macalester College, St. Paul, MN.

(15 Sept 2006) Interviewed by KARE 11 News, Minneapolis, MN: discussed a local mushroom poisoning

(02 Mar 2006) Presenter for the Minnesota Native Plant Society; "A match made in humus? The connection between bolete mushrooms and trees in Minnesota"

Edward Gilding (David Marks, advisor)

Awards/Grants: Microbial and Plant Genomics Institute Travel Grant ($500)

Meetings: Botanical Society of America annual conference, Chico, CA, July 2006.

Presentations: Presented a poster “Fluorescent proteins for the visualization of transcription factor interactions in Arabidopsis”, Gilding E K, Sanders M, and Marks M D.

William Haun (Nathan Springer, advisor)

Awards/Grants:  $500 travel grant from PBS for travel to the Maize Genetics Conference in Pacific Grove, CA, March 9-12, 2006.

Meetings:  I attended and presented a poster at the Maize Genetics Conference in Pacific Grove, CA, March 9-12, 2006.

Publications:  Haun WJ, Laoueille-Duprat S, O'connell MJ, Spillane C, Grossniklaus U, Phillips AR, Kaeppler SM, Springer NM  (2007) Genomic imprinting, methylation and molecular evolution of maize Enhancer of zeste (Mez) homologs.  Plant J 49: 325-37.

Katy D. Heath (Peter Tiffin, advisor)

Awards/Grants:  MPGI Travel Grant; Plant Biology Travel Grant

Meetings: MEEC Conference, St Louis MO: oral presentation spring 2006; UMN Center for Community Genetics: oral presentation fall 2006; ESA conference, San Jose CA: oral presentation scheduled, summer 2007

Keunsub Lee (Georgiana May, advisor)

Awards/Grants:  PBS travel award

Meetings:  24th Fungal Genetics Conference, March 21 – 25, 2007, Pacific Grove, California

Xing Liu

Awards/Grants: PBS Travel Award and the PBS Summer Fellowship.

Rachel Mills (Ruth Shaw, advisor)

Awards/Grants: PBS Summer Fellowship the PBS summer travel grant

Rachel Morphew (Kathryn VandenBosch, advisor)

Awards/Grants:  Plant Biological Sciences Summer Stipend Fellowship

Meetings/Presentations:  2006 In vitro Biology Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, Poster Presentation (06/2006); 40th North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference & 19thBloomington, MN, Poster Presentation (07/2006); So You Want To Go To Graduate School?, Viterbo University, La Crosse, WI, Informational Seminar (09/2006); Introduction to Research, Viterbo University, La Crosse, WI, Oral Research Presentation (09/2006)

Mahajabeen Padamsee (David McLaughlin, advisor)

Awards:  Phinney Graduate Fellowship ($8,500); Dayton-Wilkie Natural History Funds ($1,400); Deep Hypha Travel Award ($900); Plant Biology Travel Award ($500)

Meetings: Deep Hypha meeting, Baton Rouge, LA  Feb 2006; Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference, St. Louis, MO  Mar 2006

Presentations: Mycological Society meeting, Quebec City, Quebec, July

Publications:
Celio, G.J., M. Padamsee, B.T.M. Dentinger, R. Bauer, and D.J. McLaughlin.   Assembling the Fungal Tree of Life: Constructing the Structural and Biochemical Database. In press.

Padamsee, M., P.B. Matheny, and D.J. McLaughlin. The mushroom family Psathyrellaceae: evidence for large-scale polyphyly of the genus Psathyrella. In review. Mol. Phyl. Evol.

Celio, G.J., M. Padamsee, B.T.M. Dentinger, T.S. Jenkinson, E.G. McLaughlin, and D.J. McLaughlin. Septal pore apparatus and nuclear division of Auriscalpium vulgare. Submitted.

Brian Piasecki (Carolyn Silflow, Advisor)

Awards/Grants: Received $500 from the Keith R. Porter foundation to attend and give a presentation at the 12th International Conference on the Cell and Molecular Biology of Chlamydomonas.

Presentations: Gave a presentation entitled “The UNI2 gene in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii encodes a component of basal bodies and probasal bodies” at The 12th International Conference on the Cell and Molecular Biology of Chlamydomomans.  It was held in Portland, Oregon May 9-14, 2006.

Lorien Radmer (Deb Samac, advisor)

Publications:  Overexpression of defense response genes in transgenic wheat enhances resistance to Fusarium head blight Caroline A. Mackintosh · Janet Lewis · Lorien E. Radmer · Sanghyun Shin · Shane J. Heinen · Lisa A. Smith · Meagen N. Wyckoff · Ruth Dill-Macky · Conrad K. Evans · Sasha Kravchenko · Gerald D. Baldridge · Richard J. Zeyen · Gary J. Muehlbauer Plant Cell Rep (2007) 26:479–488.

Victoria Ranua (Cynthia Weinig, advisor)

Active member of the Minnesota Native Plant Society (monthly meetings) Appointed to the Minnesota Native Plant Society Conservation Committee. Recertified as a Federal Wildland Firefighter Type II (3rd year as a wildland firefighter...prescribed burns important habitat management tool).

Jessica Savage (Jeannine Cavender-Bares, advisor)

Awards/Grants:  Charles Brand Fellowship -  University of Minnesota, year stipend ($18,000) & tuition; Carolyn Crosby Fellowship – University of Minnesota, summer stipend ($3,000) and research grant ($3,000).

Presentations: 
Savage, J. (presenter) and J. Cavender-Bares. (August 2006) Drought response strategies of co-occurring willow (Salix) species. Presented at the Ecological Society of America Annual Conference, Memphis, TN.

Savage, J. (poster) and J. Cavender-Bares. (September 2006) Drought response strategies of co-occurring willow (Salix) species at Cedar Creek Natural History Area. Presented at the Long Term Ecological Research Network All Scientists Meeting, Estes Park, CO.

Publications:  Cavender-Bares, J., Sack, L. and J. Savage. (2007) Drought reduces nocturnal transpiration in two live oak species. Tree Physiology 27:611-620.

David Schladt   (Georgiana May, Advisor)  

Awards/Grants:  PBS travel grant

Xiaodong Sun   (Min Ni, advisor)  

Awards: Plant Biological Sciences Summer Fellowship 2006 ($4734); Plant Biological Sciences Travel Grant 2006 ($500)

Meetings: The 17th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, Madison, WI, June 2006

Publications: Yun Zhou, Xiao-Dong Sun, Min Ni (2007) Timing of Photoperiodic Flowering: Light Perception and Circadian Clock Journal of Integrative Plant Biology 49 (1), 28–34.

Xiaoqing Sun (Carolyn Silflow, advisor)

Presentations:  IREE symposium, on eastbank campus presented a poster "Production of Hydrogen by the Green Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii”, January 2007; 29th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals, Denver, CO April 29-May 2 poster title: Production of Hydrogen by the Green Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Peter Voth (Georgiana May, advisor)

Awards/Grants:  American Society for Virology Travel Award ($500); awarded July, 2006; Plant Biological Sciences Travel Grant;  Plant Biological Sciences Summer Fellowship.

Meetings and Presentations:  Invited Speaker: The Saint Paul Public Schools, Secondary Catalyst Summer Institute: The Architecture of Life; June 19-30. University of Minnesota, College of Biological Sciences, St. Paul, MN; American Society for Virology 25th Annual Meeting; July 15-19, 2006; Madison, WI; Poster presentation: “Genetic Variation in Ustilago maydis virus H1 in the USA, Mexico, and South America”; American Phytopathological Society/Mycological Society of America/Canadian Phytopathological Society Joint Meeting; July 29-August 2, 2006; Quebec City, Quebec, Canada; Invited Symposia Speaker: “Population Structure of Ustilago maydis virus H1 Across the Americas”; Invited Speaker: Biol 1905 Freshman Seminar for the Biological Sciences: From Ebola to SARS: Human Behavior and the Emergence of New and Deadly Human Viruses. November, 2006.

Publications:
Voth, P. D., Mairura, L., Lockhart, B. E., and May, G. (2006). Phylogeography of Ustilgo maydis virus H1 in the USA and Mexico. Journal of General Biology 87: 3433-3441.

Lockhart, B. E., Swenson, A. S., Olszewski, N. E., and Voth, P. D. (2007). Characterization of an Unusual Crucifer-Infecting Tobamovirus Causing Red Ringspot of Penstemon. Plant Disease (In Prep).

Mentoring:  Mentored/supervised Linah Mairura on Directed Research, NSF REU, and Honors Thesis projects from the Summer 2004 through Spring 2006, when she graduated with Honors and Summa Cum Laude. Her final Honors thesis was titled: “Biogeography of a fungal virus using comparative genomics”; Supervised Rebecca Marcus, an undergraduate volunteer, assisting me on my research from Fall 2005 through Spring 2006; Mentoring/supervising Mallory Turner on Directed Research and Honors Thesis Projects from the Summer 2005 to present. Her current research is re-characterizing the presence of toxin encoding satellite dsRNAs by Ustilago maydis virus H1.

Timothy Whitfeld (George Weiblen, advisor)

Awards/Grants:  PBS Summer Fellowship; PBS Travel Award; EEB Rothman Fellowship Award

Qiuxia Wu (Neil Olszewski, advisor)

Awards/Grants:  PBS summer fellowship.

Songqing Ye (Jerry Cohen, advisor)

Awards/Grants:  PBS Summer Fellowship, MPGI travel grant, PBS travel Grant and International Conference on Arabidopsis Research Travel award (or The North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee (NAASC) travel award.

Wenjing Zhang (Bill Gray, advisor)

Awards/Grants:  NAASC Travel Award (support for attending the 18th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research), Summer 2007.

Publication:  Moon, J., Zhao, Y., Dai, X., Zhang, W., Gray, W.M., Huq, E., and Estelle, M. 2007. A New CULLIN 1 Mutant Has Altered Responses to Hormones and Light in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol, 143: 684-696.

2005-06

American Society for Plant Taxonomists Graduate Research Awar

Wendy Clement received a research award in the amount of $1,000.

Alexander P. and Lydia Anderson Fellowship

Maj Padamsee was awarded a $3,000 research grant and Kelly Zinn was awarded a $2000 research grant.

Backus Award, Mycological Society of America

Bryn Dentinger was awarded a $1,000 grant.

Carolyn Crosby Fellowship

Nicholas Deacon was awarded a $3,000 research grant and Jenny Dechaine also received a $2,000 research grant for summer 2005

CBS Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award

Summer Silvieus and Dan Griffin received the CBS outstanding teaching award in the amount of $250.

Center for Community Genetics Fellowships/Travel Grants

Summer Silvieus received a Summer Research Grant from the Center for Community Genetics in the amount of   $2, 280.   She also received a Community Genetics Travel Grant for $757.   Laurie Stone also received $1615 for a summer stipend fellowship.   She also received a travel grant for $757.

Croasdale Fellowship

Brian Piasecki received $1000 from The Phycological Society of America to attend the Friday Harbor Labs course in June 2005.

Dayton-Wilkie Natural History Funds (Bell Museum)

Maj Padamsee has received a $1,400 fellowship for 2005.
Jessica Savage received a $1,200 award for research.
Bryn Dentinger received a $1,120 research grant for the summer of 2005.

Deep Hypha Travel Award

Maj Padamsee has received a $900 fellowship for 2005.            
For travel to the 2005 annual meetings for the Mycological Society of America Bryn Dentinger received a $900 grant.

Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship and Doctoral Dissertation International Research Grant

Bryn Dentinger received the DDF which includes a stipend, health and tuition benefits for the academic year 2005-06 to finish up with his research and writing of his thesis.
Nicholas Deacon was awarded $5,000 for the DD International Research Grant to continue his thesis research in Costa Rica.

GK-12 Initiative

Summer Silvieus received a 2005-06 12-month stipend plus tuition for this fellowship.
Jenny Dechaine has been awarded this fellowship for 2006-07.

Hamm Memorial Fellowship

Ali Sivitz received a $1,500 Hamm fellowship.

NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant

Wendy Clement was awarded the NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant for
2006-2007, which is to provide research funding to students that are completing their dissertation projects.

Molecular Plant Genetics Institute Fellowship

Ryoko Oono, first-year student in fall 2005 received this fellowship for the academic year that includes tuition and a stipend.

Molecular Plant Genetics Institute Travel Grant

Ali Sivitz received a $500 travel grant.
Brian Piasecki received a travel grant for Summer 2005

Pletcher Fellowship

Wendy Clement was awarded a $2500 scholarship to be used for travel or stipend.

Phinney Fellowship

Wenjing Zhang received the Bernard and Jean Phinney Graduate Fellowship in Plant Molecular Biology.   Each student was awarded $8,000 for stipend plus tuition and fringes.

Plant Biological Sciences Annual Retreat - May 19, 2005

All students, other than first-year students, presented a poster at the retreat.

Plant Biological Sciences First-Year Student Fellowship

Our incoming students receive a PBS fellowship for their first semester while they do rotations to identify an advisor.   The following students that received this were:   Rachel Mills, Sumitha Nallu, Lingtian Kong, Xiaodong Sun, Xiaoqing Sun

Plant Biological Sciences Travel Awards

The PBS Graduate Program support graduate student travel. These funds are to help support travel to professional meetings, a scientific laboratory or workshops to learn new techniques, or for the collection of biological materials. The following students received travel awards for summer 2005, fall 2005 and spring 2006 not to exceed $500 for each student:  Ed Gilding, Nicholas Deacon, BJ Haun, Angela Hendrickson, Ali Sivitz, Wendy, Clement, Jennifer Dechaine, Bryn Dentinger, Harpartap Mann, Ryoko Oono, Maj Padamsee, Brian Piasecki, Lorien Radmer, Jessica Savage, Xiaodong Sun, Lin Wang, Songqing Ye, Wenjing Zhang, Yun Zhou, Kelly Zinn.

Plant Biological Sciences Summer Fellowships

Summer Block Grant Stipend Awardees for 2005 were: Divya Chandran, Nicholas Deacon, Jenny Dechaine, Bryn Dentinger, Keunsub Lee, Harpartap Mann, Brian Piasecki, Lorien Radmer, David Schladt, Laurie Stone, Chad Westberg, Yun Zhou, Kelly Zinn, Pavani Maragowni.

Tuition Fellowship

Peter Matsumoto, recipient of the National Needs Fellowship received a tuition fellowship for fall 2005.

UMN International Travel Dissertation Fellowship

Wendy Clement received the UMN Int'l fellowship award in the amount of $5,000

Presentations at conferences, Publications

Divya Chandran

Model Legume Conference, June 5-9, 2005 Pacific Grove CA; Gave an oral presentation entitled: "An evaluation of aluminum tolerance in MedicagotTruncatula "

Presented a poster entitled "Physiological and molecular characterization of aluminum tolerance in Medicago truncatula ".

American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) July 16-20, 2005 Seattle, WA.   Presented a poster entitled "Molecular characterization of A1-induced genes

PBS Annual Retreat May 2005 - presented poster

Wendy Clement

Phylogeny of Castilleae (Moraceae): Investigating the evolutionary history of the figs' closest relatives Wendy Clement (oral presentation) XVII International Botanical Congress, Vienna, Austria; July 17-23, 2005

Phylogeny and pollination biology of Castilleae (Moraceae): Investigating the evolutionary history of the figs' closest relatives; Wendy Clement (oral presentation)

Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference, St. Louis, MO; March 17-19, 2006
PBS Annual Retreat May 2005 - poster

Silvieus, S.I., W. L. Clement , and G.D. Weiblen. Submitted. Cophylogeny of fig pollinators, parasites and parasitoids, pp. In K. J. Tilmon (ed.), Evolutionary Biology of Plant and Insect Relationships University of California Press, Berkeley, California.

Zerega, N.J.C., W.L. Clement , S.L. Datwyler, and G.D. Weiblen. 2005. Biogeography and divergence
times in the mulberry family (Moraceae). Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution . 37:402-416.

PBS Annual Retreat May 2005 - poster

Nicholas Deacon

Oral Presentation:   "Distribution of Genetic Diversity in a Fragmented Tropical Live Oak Forest". Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting (August 2005)

PBS Annual Retreat May 2005 - poster

Bryn Dentinger

Dentinger, B.T.M. and D.J. McLaughlin. Reconstructing the Clavariaceae using nuclear large subunit rDNA sequences and a new genus segregated from Clavaria . Mycologia (submitted).

Celio, G., M. Padamsee, B.T.M. Dentinger , R. Bauer, and D.J. McLaughlin. Assembling the Fungal Tree of Life: Constructing the Structural and Biochemical Database. Mycologia (submitted).

Harsh, N.S.K., Y.P. Singh, H.K. Gupta, B.M. Mushra, D.J. McLaughlin, and B. Dentinger . 2005. A new culm rot disease of bamboo in India and its management. Journal of Bamboo and Rattan 4(4):387-398.

Dentinger, B. 2006. Systematics, biogeography, and speciation of porcini mushrooms. (oral presentation) Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference, 17-19 March 2006. St. Louis, MO.

Dentinger, B.C . and McLaughlin, D.J. 2005. Homoplastic surgery: Reconstructing the classification of two coral mushroom families (Clavariceae and Pterulaceae). (poster presentation) Mycological Society of America Meetings, July 2005. Hilo, HI.

Dickie, I.A., Dentinger, B.C ., Avis, P.G., McLaughlin, D.J., and Reich, P.B. 2005. Ectomycorrhizal fungi of North American oak savannas. (oral presentation) Mycological Society of America Meetings, July 2005. Hilo, HI.

Celio, G.J., Padamsee, M., Dentinger, B.C ., McLaughlin, D.J., Hibbett, D.S., Lutzoni, F., Spatafora, J.W., and Vilgalys, R.J. 2005. The nucleus in the AFTOL non-molecular database. (poster presentation) Mycological Society of America Meetings, July 2005. Hilo, HI.

Presenter for the Minnesota Native Plant Society; "A match made in humus? The connection between bolete mushrooms and trees in Minnesota" (02 Mar 2006)

Designer of Porcini Mushrooms Through the Ages , a display for the Plant Pathology Library, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN (Sept 2005)

Volunteer for the second annual Minnesota BioBlitz at the Minnesota River Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Bloomington, MN (10-11 Jun 2005)

Jenny Dechaine

PBS Annual Retreat May, 2005 - poster                                                

Teaching assistant in Plant Diversity and Adaptation, Fall 2005

Ed Gilding

ASPB Plant Genetics 2005, October 14-17, poster presentation; In the fall of 2005 I volunteered to mentor Murray Junior High students when planning their science fair projects with Dr. John Ward. This activity included a short presentation to two classes and two planning sessions with a small group of students interested in conducting a project that included plants.

Sajeet Haridas

Attended the Model Legume Congress, June 5-9, 2005, Pacific Grove, California.   Presented a poster   Analysis of a putative calcium dependent protein kinase in Medicago Truncatula   Sajeet Haridas , Sergey Ivashuta and J. Stephen Gantt

Ivashuta, Sergey, Jinyuan Liu, Junqi Liu, Dasharath P. Lohar, Sajeet Haridas , Bruna Bucciarelli, Kathryn A. VandenBosch, Carroll P. Vance, Maria J. Harrison, J. Stephen Gantt. 2005. RNA Interference Identifies a Calcium-dependent Protein Kinase Involved in Medicago truncatula Root Development. Plant Cell 17: 2911-2921.

Ivashuta, S., Liu, J., Liu, J., Lohar, D.P ., Haridas, S ., Bucciarelli, B., Vandenbosch, K.A., Vance, C.P., Harrison, M.J., Gantt, J.S. 2005. A Calcium-Dependent Protein Kinase Controls Root Development and Symbiotic Interactions. 2005 Model Legume Congress, June 5-9, 2005, Pacific Grove, California. Paper No. S24, P. 35.

BJ Haun

Attended the presented a poster at the 2006 Maize Genetics Conference, May 9-12, 2006 in Pacific Grove, CA

Tim Heisel

Annual PBS retreat in May 2005 - Presented a poster

2005 International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, June 2005 in Madison, WI - Presented a poster

Meeting for the Institute for Renewable Energy and the Environment, September 2005 in Minneapolis, MN - Presented a poster

Developmental Biology Colloquium, March 2006 in Minneapolis, MN - Gave a 25-minute oral presentation about my research

Yadong Huang

June 15-19, 2005. 16th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, poster presentation

Annual PBS retreat in May 2005 - Presented a poster

Keunsub Lee

Munkacsi, A. B., Kawakami, S., Pan, J. J., Lee, K ., Stoxen, S., Hang, J., May, G. Genome-wide assessment of tandem repeat markers for biogeographical analyses of the corn smut fungus, Ustilago maydis. Molecular Ecology Notes. 6(1): 221-223

Harpartap Mann

Mann, H. S ., Bedford, D., Luby, J., Vickers, Z., and Tong, C. (2005) Relationship of instrumental and sensory texture measurements of fresh and stored apples to cell number and cell size. HortScience 40(6): 1815-1820

Rachel Morphew

Attended the 2005 Model Legume Congress in Pacific Grove, CA.

Mahajabeen Padamsee

Oral presentation at Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference, March 17-19, 2006, Saint Louis, Missouri.

Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Mycological Society of America, July 30-August 5, 2005, Hilo, Hawaii.

Celio, G.J., M. Padamsee, B.T. Dentinger, R. Bauer, and D.J. McLaughlin. Assembling the Fungal Tree of Life: Constructing the Structural and Biochemical Database. Submitted to Mycologia .

Brian Piasecki

Attended a 5-week course entitled Marine Algae at the University of Washington field station Friday Harbor Labs in June 2005.   Attended the 46 th annual meeting of The American Society for Cell Biologists in San Francisco in December 2005.  He presented the paper entitled "The UNI2 gene in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii encodes a component of basal bodies and probasal bodies.

Yiping Qi

Attended the 16th International Conference on Arabidopsis research at Madison from June 15 to June 19 in 2005 .

Lorien Radmer

Poster Presentation: Plant Biology 2005; ASPB, July 16-20, Seattle, WA

Annual PBS Retreat - presented poster

Caroline A. Mackintosh, David F. Garvin, Lorien E. Radmer, Shane J. Heinen, Gary J. Muehlbauer, A model wheat cultivar for transformation to improve resistance to Fusarium Head Blight, Plant Cell Reports, Mar 2006, Pages 1 - 7

Jessica Savage

Cavender-Bares, J., Sack, L. and J. Savage. Quantification of nocturnal transpiration in live oaks ( Quercus virginiana and Q. oleoides ) under contrasting soil moisture regimes. In review.

David Schladt

Oral presentation at the Microbial and Plant Genomics Institute (MPGI) retreat the the University of Minnesota on November 5,2005.

Summer Silvieus

Exploring host specificity and species limits of nonpollinating fig wasps, Talk, Joint meeting of the Soc. for the study of Evolution, Soc. of Syst. Biologists, and the American Soc. of Naturalists (Evolution Conference), Fairbanks, Alaska (2005)

Reconstructing a fig wasp parasitoid phylogeny, Poster presentation with undergraduate Erika Blackwell, Joint meeting of the Soc. for the study of Evolution, Soc. of Syst. Biologists, and the American Soc. of Naturalists (Evolution Conference), Fairbanks, Alaska (2005)

Co-cladogenesis in the fig-fig wasp community, Poster presentation with graduate Wendy Clement, Community Genetics Symposium, U. of Minnesota (2005)

Examining cospeciation between figs and their nonpollinating wasps, Poster presentation, Joint meeting of the Soc. for the study of Evolution, Soc. of Syst. Biologists, and the American Soc. of Naturalists (Evolution Conference), Chico, California (2003)

Cophylogeny of fig pollinators, parasites and parasitoids. S. I. Silvieus, G. Weiblen, W. Clement. In press. In K. Tilmon (ed.) Evolutionary Biology of Plant and Insect Relationships . University of California Press, Berkely, California.

Ali Sivitz

Talk at the 2nd Pan American Workshop on Plant Membrane Biology in May 2006, South Padre Island, Texas

Sivitz AB, Reinders A, Johnson ME, Ward JM. "AtSUC9 is an ultra high affinity sucrose transporter in Arabidopsis." (In preparation) Anke Reinders, Alicia B. Sivitz , Chris Grof and John M. Ward.   Sugarcane ShSUT1: analysis of sucrose transport activity and inhibition by sucralose. (Submitted)

Sivitz AB , Reinders A, Ward JM.   Analysis of the transport activity of barley sucrose transporter HvSUT1. Plant Cell Physiol. 2005 Oct; 46(10):1666-73.

Laurie Stone

Attended the Ecological Society of America meeting in Montreal, Canada, August 2005.  I presented a poster there:  Reproduction and selection in Schizachyrium scoparium and Koeleria cristata in response to elevated CO2 and N.

Presented a poster at Plant Biology Annual Retreat, May 2005.

Presented a poster at ESA, Montreal, Canada, August 2005

Chad Westberg

Attended the National Biorefinery Meeting in Washington D.C., June 2005.

Lynette Wong

Attended the Gordon Research Conference on Plant Metabolic Engineering in July 2005 and presented a poster titled "Water stress increases the levels of phenylethyl glucosinolate in Nasturtium officinale R. Br."

Wenjing Zhang

Meeting & Abstract: Zhang, W. , Ito, H., and Gray, M.W. Investigating the role of ETA2/CAND1 in regulating SCF complex activity.  The 16th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison. June 15th - June 19th, 2005.

Yun Zhou

Attended 16th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research June 2005 in Madison Wisconsin.

Kelly Zinn

Uhde-Stone C, Liu J, Zinn KE , Allan DL, Vance CP. Transgenic proteoid roots of white lupin: a vehicle for characterizing and silencing root genes involved in adaptation to P stress. Plant 2005 Dec; 44(5): 840-53. PLANT JOURNAL 44 (5): 840-853

Kelly E. Zinn , Junqi Liu, Jeltie Hulshout, Deborah L. Allan, Carroll P. Vance (2006) Elucidation of cis-elements in White Lupin Phosphorus Deficiency Signaling.   Abstract for Twenty Third Annual Missouri Symposium, Plant Roots: From Genes to Form and Functions.  Columbia, Missouri USA.

2004-05

Carol and Wayne Pletcher Fellowship

Wendy Clement

Sigma Xi Grants in Aid Research

Wendy Clement
Katy Heath

Garden Club of America Award in Tropical Botany

Wendy Clement

Dayton-Wilkie Award

Wendy Clement
Nicholas Deacon
Bryn Dentinger

Explorer's Club Award

Wendy Clement

UMN International Travel Dissertation Fellowship

Wendy Clement

Carolyn Crosby Fellowship

Nicholas Deacon
Jenny Dechaine

MN Center for Community Genetics Fellowship

Katy Heath
Laurie Stone

GAPSA Travel Grant

Nicholas Deacon

NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant

Katy Heath
Peter Voth

NSF Deep Hypha Travel Award

Bryn Dentinger
Andrew Munkacsi

Friday Harbor Labs Course

Brian Piasecki

Croasdale Fellowship/The Phycological Society of America

Brian Piasecki

PMGI/CMPG Retreat Best Graduate Student Poster Award

Lin Wang

GK-12 Fellowship

Summer Silvieus

MN Center for Community Genetic Travel Award

Katy Heath
Summer Silvieus
Laurie Stone

Phinney Fellowship

Wenjing Zhang

PBS Summer Fellowships

Divya Chandran
Nicholas Deacon
Jenny Dechaine
Bryn Dentinger
Keunsub Lee
Harpartap Mann
Brian Piasecki
Lorien Radmer
David Schladt
Laurie Stone
Chad Westberg
Yun Zhou
Kelly Zinn

Publications 2004-05

Wendy Clement
Clement, W.L., M.C. Tebbitt, L.L. Forrest, J.E. Blair, L. Brouillet, T. Eriksson, and S.M. Swensen. 2004. Phylogenetic position and biogeography of Hillebrandia sandwicensis (Begoniaceae): a rare Hawaiian relict. American Journal of Botany. 91:905-917.

Zerega, N.C., W.L. Clement, S.L. Datwyler, G.D. Weiblen. Biogeography and divergence times in the mulberry family (Moraceae) based on chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Submitted.

Tebbitt, M.C., L. Lowe-Forrest, A. Santoriello, W.L. Clement, and S.M. Swensen. 2004. Phylogenetic relationships of Asian Begonia , with an emphasis on the evolution of rainballist and animal dispersal mechanisms in sections Platycentrum, Sphenanthera and Leprosae Systematic Botany. Submitted.

Bryn Dentinger
Lutzoni, F., F. Kauff, C.J. Cox, D. McLaughlin, G. Celio, B. Dentinger , M. Padamsee, D. Hibbett, T.Y. James, E. Baloch, M. Grube, V. Reeb, V. Hofstetter, C. Schoch, A.E. Arnold, J. MIiadlikowska, J. Spatafora, D. Johnson, S. Hambleton, M. Crockett, R. Shoemaker, G.-H. Sung, R. Lücking, T. Lumbsch, K. O'Donnell, M. Binder, P. Diederich, D. Ertz, C. Gueidan, K. Hansen, R.C. Harris, K. Hosaka, Y.-W. Lim, B. Matheny, H. Nishida, D. Pfister, J. Rogers, A. Rossman, I. Schmitt, H. Sipman, J. Stone, J. Sugiyama, R. Yahr, R. Vilgalys. 2004. Assembling the fungal tree of life: progress, classification, and evolution of subcellular traits. American Journal of Botany 91(10):1446-1480.

Avis, P.G., D.J. McLaughlin, B.C. Dentinger , and P.B. Reich. 2003. Long-term increase in nitrogen supply alters above-and below-ground ectomycorrhizal communities and increases the dominance of Russula spp. in a temperate oak savanna. New Phytologist 160:239-253.

Dentinger, B . 2002. Book Review: A ballistic introduction to the fungi. The Prairie Naturalis t 1/2:67-68. peer-reviewed

Katy Heath
Pearse IS, Heath KD , Cheeseman JM, 2005.   Biochemical and ecological characterization of two perioxidase isoenzymes from the mangrove, Rhixophora mangle .   Plant cell and Environment, in press.

Kuppusamy, Kavitha
Kuppusamy K , Endre G, Prabhu R, Penmetsa RV, Veereshlingam H, Dickstein R, Cook DR, VandenBosch K. (2004) iLin, a Medicago truncatula gene required for nodule differentiation and persistence of rhizobial infections". Plant Physiology 136:3682-3691

Comparative transcript profiling reveals coordinated gene regulation during nodule development in Medicago truncatula   (Manuscript in preparation)

Munkacsi, Andrew
Munkacsi AB , Pan JJ, Villesen P, Mueller UG, Blackwell M, McLaughlin, DJ (2004) Convergent coevolution in the domestication of coral mushrooms by fungus-growing ants. Proceedings Royal Society, 271, 1777-1782.

Cheryl Scott
Scott, C L ., Hartweck, L M., Garcia, J A., and Neil E. Olszewski. (In preparation). SEC Modifies PPV-CP With an O -GlcNAc at its Amino-terminal End

Sivitz, Ali
The Cre-loxP recombination-based reporter system for plant transcriptional expression studies, Shigaki, T., Vyzasatya, R.R., Sivitz, A.B ., Ward, J.m. Sze, H., Hirschi, K.D.

Analysis of the transport activity of barley sucrose transporter HuShtl, Sivitz, A.B ., Reinders, A., Ward, J.M., (submitted)

Peer Voth
Voth, Peter , Ben Lockhart, and Georgiana May. (2005). Phylogeography of a fungal virus in the USA and Mexico. Molecular Ecology . (in prep)

Vyzasatya, Ravi
The Cre- loxP recombination-based reporter system for plant transcriptional expression studiesToshiro Shigaki, Ravi R. Vyzasatya, Ali B. Sivitz, John M. Ward, Heven Sze and Kendal D. Hirschi, Accepted in Plant Molecular Biology (2005)

Lin Wang
Biodegradation of Atrazine in Transgenic Plants Expressing a Modified Bacterial Atrazin Chlorohydrolase (atzA) Gene Lin Wang1 , Deborah A. Samac2,3, Nir Shapir3,4,6, Lawrence P. Wackett1,3,4, Carroll P. Vance3,5, and Michael J. Sadowsky1,3,6* Accepted by Plant biotechnology journal (in press)

Lynette Wong
Book Review:    Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition:   An Ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland.   Allen, David and Hatfield, Gabrielle published in Plant Science Bulletin 51 (1) 2005

Wenjing Zhang
Chuang, H ., Zhang, W ., and Gray, W.M. 2004. Arabidopsis ETA2, an apparent ortholog of the human Cullin-Interacting Protein CAND1, is required for auxin responses mediated by the SCFTIR1 ubiquitin ligase. Plant Cell, 16(7):1883-97.

Quint, M., Ito, H., Zhang, W ., and Gray, W.M. 2005. Characterization of a novel temperature-sensitive allele of the CUL1/AXR6 subunit of SCF ubiquitin-ligases.   Plant Journal (submitted, under review).      

Presentations at conferences, committee meetings

Avis, P.G., D.J. McLaughlin, B.C. Dentinger, and P.B. Reich. Consequences of increased nitrogen supply and altered root allocation on the ectomycorrhizal communities of a temperate-deciduous ecosystem. Mycological Society of America Meetings, July, 2003. Asilomar, CA.

American Society of Plant Biologists? annual meeting: July, 2003

Deep Hypha meeting, Knoxville, TN

Short presentation on progress made for the Assembling the Fungal Tree of Life project.

Arabidopsis meeting held in Madison Wisconsin from June 20, 2003 through June 24, 2003

Knowles, R.D., Biesboer, D.D., Pastor, J., Russelle, M.P., and Snyder, J.S. Peltigera, a genus of nitrogen-fixing, terricolous lichens: its contribution of nitrogen to forest soils of northern Minnesota. Poster presentation. Forest and Wildlife Research Review,

Plant and Animal Genome Conference: Poster Presentation

Oral presentation at the 57th annual meeting of The Phycological Society of America. The citation is Piasecki, B.P. and Brand, J.J. (2003) "Cryopreservation of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (Chlorophyta): A cause of low viability at high cell density"

Poster presentation at the American Society of Plant Biologists Annual Meeting

University of Minnesota Duluth, Jan 2004. Knowles, R.D., Pastor, J., Biesboer, D.D., and Snyder, J.S. Increased soil nitrogen associated with dinitrogen-fixing, terricolous lichens of the genus Peltigera in northern Minnesota.

Poster presentation. Ecological Society of America conference, Aug 2004.

Poster presentation at the American Society of Plant Biologists Annual Meeting.

The 14th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, title: Sugars and Phytohormones Regulate Seed Germination and Early Seedling Development via a Complex Signaling "Network")

11th International Conference on the Cell and Molecular Biology of Chlamydomonas. It meets on May 11-14, 2004 in Kobe, Japan.. The citation on the is Piasecki, B. Wu, W., LaVoie, M., Tam, L-W., Lefebvre, P.A., and Silflow, C.D. (2004) "The product of gene identified by the 31E3 mutation localizes to the basal bodies".

Joint meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution, Society of Systematic Biologists, and the American Society of Naturalists (Evolution Conference), 2003, presented poster on current research work. University of Minnesota Duluth, Jan 2004.

Knowles, R.D., Pastor, J., Biesboer, D.D., and Snyder, J.S. Increased soil nitrogen associated with dinitrogen-fixing, terricolous lichens of the genus Peltigera in northern Minnesota. Poster presentation. Ecological Society of America conference, Aug 2004

Publications in journals

Avis, P.G., D.J. McLaughlin, B.C. Dentinger, and P.B. Reich. 2003. Long-term increase in nitrogen supply alters above- and below-ground ectomycorrhizal communities and increases the dominance of Russula spp. in a temperate oak savanna. New Phytologist 160:239-253.

Clement, W.L., M.C. Tebbitt, L.L. Forrest, J.E. Blair, L. Brouillet, T. Eriksson, and S.M. Swensen. 2004. Phylogenetic position and biogeography of Hillebrandia sandwicensis (Begoniaceae): a rare Hawaiian relict. American Journal of Botany. In press

Cohen, J.D., Slovin, J.P., and Hendrickson, A.M. 2003. Two genetically discrete pathways convert tryptophan to auxin: more redundancy in auxin biosynthesis. Trends in Plant Science 8: 197-199. (Published)

Lutzoni, F., F. Kauff, C.J. Cox, D. McLauhglin, G. Celio, B. Dentinger, M. Padamsee, D. Hibbett, T.Y. James, E. Baloch, M. Grube, V. Reeb, V. Hofstetter, C. Schoch, A.E. Arnold, J. MIiadlikowska, J. Spatafora, D. Johnson, S. Hambleton, M. Crockett, R. Shoemaker, G.-H. Sung, R. L?king, T. Lumbsch, K. O?Donnell, M. Binder, P. Diedrich, D. Ertz, C. Gueidan, B. Hall, K. Hansen, R.C. Harris, K. Hosaka, Y.-W. Lim, Y. Liu, B. Matheny, H. Nishida, D. Pfister, J. Rogers, A. Rossman, I. Schmitt, H. Sipman, J. Stone, J. Sugiyama, R. Yahr, R. Vilgalys. (in press). Where are we in assembling the fungal tree of life, classifying the fungi, and understanding the evolution of their subcellular traits? American Journal of Botany.

Methods for the Increasing One or More Glucosinolates in a Plant Patent File 110.0224 0160

The title is "ERECTA is required for protection against heat-stress in the AS1/AS2 pathway to regulate adaxial-abaxial leaf polarity in Arabidopsis" . The journal is "Planta". It was published online on 19 March 2004.

Miscellaneous

Poster, Identification of SPY and SEC Substrates, Cheryl L. Scott, Lynn M. Hartweck, Tong-Seung Tseng, Tina M. Thornton, and Neil E. Olszewski

Seminar: "Beer, Brats, und Biology: Graduate research experiences in Germany." Department of Horticultural Sciences, University of Minnesota, March, 2004

Seminar: "Analysis of the tryptophan-dependent IAA biosynthesis pathway: Identification, purification, and characterization of the intermediates and enzymes in maize endosperm." Institut fuer Botanik, Technische Universitaet Dresden. November, 2004.

Seminar presentation in the Horticultural Sciences Department "More than Just a Canal.." April 7, 2004