Institute for Integrative Genome Biology

Please join us in honoring:

2008 USDA NATIONAL RESEARCH INITIATIVE (NRI)
DISCOVERY AWARD RECIPIENTS
Dr. Julia Bailey-Serres, UCR Botany & Plant Sciences
Dr. Pamela Ronald, UCD Plant Pathology
David J. MacKill, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

SEMINAR TITLE:
Drs. J. Bailey Serres, P. Ronald
Submergence Resilient Rice: From the Genetic Mechanism to the Field

AWARD PRESENTERS:
Dr. Gale A. Buchanan
USDA Under Secretary  for Research Education and Economics
Dr. Colien Hefferan
Administrator for the Cooperative State Research, Education
and Extension Service (CSREES)
Dr. Timothy P. White
UCR Chancellor

Reception following Ceremony

Background:
Dr. Julia Bailey-Serres, Professor of Genetics in the Botany & Plant Sciences department, F.C. Donders Chair at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and IIGB/CEPCEB member, is the lead recipient of the 2008 USDA National Research Initiative (NRI) Discovery Award for landmark work on submergence tolerance in rice. The NRI is the largest peer-reviewed competitive grants program in the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), and the Discovery Award recognizes outstanding researchers who address key problems of national, regional and multi-state importance in all components of agriculture. The projects, which are leading to the development of rice varieties with greater submergence tolerance, have significant meaning for struggling rice farmers throughout the world whose crop yields are often subject to destruction by seasonal rains. 

In collaboration with International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) researchers in the Philippines and at the Riverside and Davis University of California campuses, Dr. Bailey-Serres has been the principal investigator on three USDA-funded projects identifying flood-resistant genes.  Their research primarily focuses on one such gene, called the Sub1A gene, that when overexpressed allows rice crops to escape ruination from prolonged submergence during floods. Researchers sharing this 2008 honor include Assistant Specialist Takeshi Fukao in the UC Riverside Botany & Plant Sciences department, Pamela Ronald, Professor of Plant Pathology and Chair of the Plant Genomics Program at UC Davis, and David J. Mackill,  IRRI Senior Scientist. In November 2008, Drs. Bailey-Serres and Ronald and their IRRI colleagues will tour rice farms in Bangladesh and India that have grown genetic flood-resistant varieties.

Publications related to this award:

Fukao, T and Bailey-Serres J (2008)Submergence Tolerance Conferred by Sub1A is Mediated by SLR1 and SLRL1 Restriction of Gibberellin Responses in Rice. Proc Natl Acad Sci 105(43): 16814-6819.
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Fukao T, Harris T and Bailey-Serres J (2008) Evolutionary Analysis of the Sub1 Gene Cluster that Confers Submergence Tolerance to Domesticated Rice. Annals of Botany doi:10.1093/aob/mcn172.
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Xu K, Xu K, Fukao T, Canalas P, Maghirang-Rodriguez R, Heuer S, Ismail A, Bailey-Serres J, Ronald PC, Mackill DJ (2006) Sub1A is an ethylene responsive-factor-like gene that confers submergence tolerance to rice. Nature 442: 705-708.
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Press Release

Fukao T, Xu K, Ronald PC and Bailey-Serres J (2006) A variable cluster of ethylene responsive-like factors (ERFs) regulates developmental and metabolic acclimation responses to submergence. Plant Cell 18(8):2021-2034. 
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