Highlights from the 2024 Plant Sciences Symposium

2024 Theme

Professional Development Workshop

The workshop was held on the first day of the symposium, February 29th, 2024 from 2 – 3 PM. Our speaker for this event was Dr. Bernhard Debatin from Ohio University. He spoke about communicating science to the general public. The workshop was virtual Zoom sent to emails of registered participants.

Invited Speakers

The Symposium featured Dr. Rebecca Bart from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Dr. Linda Kinkel from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Luis Cañas from The Ohio State University, Dr. Douglas Kinghorn from The Ohio State University, and one speaker from our sponsor Corteva. This Symposium featured graduate student speakers and a poster competition. Awards for selected student speakers and for top poster presenters were announced during the Symposium.

 

Rebecca Bart, PhD.

Becky Bart is a Member, Principal Investigator and VP of Research at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. Her research focuses on the complicated interactions between plants, microbes and the environment and encompasses disease-causing microbes such as bacteria and viruses and the less well understood multitude of beneficial microbes that associate with plants. Becky’s team applies computational, lab and field-based methods to dissect the complicated web of these interactions and to understand how they ultimately affect plant health and the sustainability of agriculture. She also serves as the Director of the Subterranean Influences on Carbon and Nitrogen (SINC) Center. At the SINC Center, Becky and her colleagues are working to improve the sustainability of agriculture by developing technologies to track the flow of nitrogen and carbon across plant roots, discovering novel beneficial microbes, and understanding the genetic mechanisms that influence these interactions. Through this work they are developing technologies to decrease the use of nitrogen fertilizer without the loss of crop productivity. Becky received a B.A. from Reed College, her PhD from the University of California, Davis, was a NIFA postdoctoral scholar at the University of California. In 2019, she received the Innovation Award from the St. Louis Academy of Sciences.

To learn more about Dr. Bart’s work, please visit her lab website: Becky Bart Lab

Linda Kinkel, PhD.

Linda Kinkel is a Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Minnesota. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Plant Pathology and M.S. in Biometry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and completed Post-doctoral research at the University of California-Berkeley.

Dr. Kinkel’s research focuses on the ecology and evolutionary biology of plant microbiomes in native and agricultural habitats. She is especially interested in developing practical approaches for managing the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of antagonistic soil bacteria to enhance disease suppression. Her current work integrates genomic and transcriptomic analyses of soil and endophytic populations and microbiomes in relation to pathogen suppression, plant host and plant community diversity, and soil carbon dynamics in agricultural and native prairie soils. She has led the International Agricultural Microbiomes Research Coordination Network, and has served as Chairman of the American Phytopathological Society Public Policy Board and as Associate Editor-in-Chief for the Phytobiomes Journal. Dr. Kinkel also serves as Founder and Chief Science Officer of Jord BioScience, seeking to translate fundamental knowledge of soil microbiomes to practical tools for growers.

Luis Cañas, PhD.

Dr. Luis Cañas is Director of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) International Programs, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist in Entomology at Ohio State University. Dr. Cañas is nationally and internationally recognized as an expert in the management of insect pests that attack plants in controlled environments, with more than 25 years of experience. His research provides applied solutions to problems caused by thrips, whiteflies and mites among others. His areas of expertise include insect management using insecticides and biological control agents, biodemography, insect‐plant interactions.

 

 

Douglas Kinghorn, PhD.

Dr. A. Douglas Kinghorn was appointed in 2004 as Professor and Jack L. Beal Chair at the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy. He received Ph.D. (1975) and D.Sc. (1990) degrees from The School of Pharmacy, University of London, and an honorary D.Sc. degree (2011) from the University of Bradford in the U.K.. From 1977-2004, he served on the faculty of the College of Pharmacy of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where he was promoted to Full Professor in 1986. While in Chicago, he was named as the B. Kenneth West Senior University Scholar (1993-1996), and received the 2002-2003 UIC Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Kinghorn is a former President of both the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP; 1990-1991) and the Society for Economic Botany (1991-1992). He was the recipient of the 2010 Norman R. Farnsworth Research Achievement Award of ASP and the 2020 Egon Stahl Award in Gold from GA (Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research), Darmstadt, Germany, both for lifetime contributions to natural products research. He is a Fellow of five professional and scientific associations, as well as of the School of Pharmacy, University of London. In 2016, Dr. Kinghorn was the recipient of a Distinguished Scholar Award of The Ohio State University, and in 2022 he was selected as a Distinguished University Professor. He has authored or co-authored over 590 peer-reviewed research articles, review articles, and book chapters, and has edited or co-edited 40 scientific volumes. Since 1980, Dr. Kinghorn has served as Principal Investigator of many projects supported by both the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and private industry. Currently, he is Principal Investigator of a program project award from the U.S. National Cancer Institute, NIH, entitled “Discovery of Anticancer Agents of Diverse Natural Origin” (P01CA125066; 2007-2025). Dr. Kinghorn has been Major and/or Thesis Advisor/Committee Chair to 50 graduate students and has directly supervised about 70 postdoctoral students and visiting scholars. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Natural Products (1994-2019), and since 2008 has been Series Editor of the book series “Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products” (Springer Nature, Cham, Switzerland).

Dr. Rosana Serikawa

Speaker topic: Discovering and Developing new biologicals compounds

 

Rosana Serikawa is the Biologicals Technology Leaders at Corteva Agriscience. In her role she is resp

onsible for leading a team of scientist that characterize and discover new biologicals compounds. At Corteva, Rosana had a diversity of jobs, she started as a field scientist in Brazil, moving to a LATAM R&D product manager. In US, she had a few different people leadership roles as North and West R&D manager and Controlled Environmental Science leader.

Rosana has 12 years of experience in the industry and received her B.A. in Agronomic Engineering in Brazil, her Master’s and PhD from University of Nebraska and University of Florida, respectively. Rosana through Corteva is fully engaged on activities devoted to developing the minority employees through business resources groups for women, Latin and new employees.

Student speakers

 

Emma Canaday

Emma Canaday is pursuing a Ph.D. in environmental and plant biology in the lab of Dr. Sarah Wyatt at Ohio University. Her current research focuses on using bioinformatics to assess how plants alter their transcriptomes and translatomes when grown in space. They are passionate about studying how plants adapt to the harsh environments of spaceflight and plan to continue in this field after graduating.

Title: Transcriptional, Posttranscriptional, and Translational Regulation of Arabidopsis seedlings grown aboard the International Space Station

 

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Madhura Yapa

I am Madhura Yapa, who is a PhD candidate in the department of Environmental and Plant Biology at Ohio University. I am a member of Hua Lab and working on ubiquitylation pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana. Currently my focus lies on understanding how F-box proteins involve in plant growth and development through ubiquitylation pathway.

Title: A High-throughput Functional Genomic Study of Core Arabidopsis F-box (CAF) Genes using an Overexpression Approach

 

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Lillian Ebeling-Konig

Lillian Ebeling-Koning is a fourth year Molecular Genetics Major with a Studio Art minor at The Ohio State University. She has been involved with plant pathology research working with barley infecting Xanthomonas translucens pv. translucens for the past 2 years including field work as a Barley Research and Development intern for Molson Coors Beverage Company in Idaho in 2022 and then continuing as an undergraduate research assistant in The Jonathan Jacobs Lab at Ohio State.

Title: Genetic diversity and dissemination strategies in X. translucens populations

 

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Akash Datta

Akash is a third year Ph.D. student in the Sacks Lab at the Department of Crop Sciences. The research interest of Akash is focusing on gene discovery and varietal development in dry-direct seeded rice for better germination and emergence through functional genomics and molecular plant breeding. Akash further intends to work more on plant functional genomics for crop improvement. Apart from research, Akash is involved in jiu-jitsu, hiking, mountain biking and exploring diverse food cuisines.

 

Title: Charting the Path to Direct Seeded Rice Farming: Genome-wide Associations for Mesocotyl Length

 

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Hannah Toth

Hannah is a Master’s student in Dr. Jonathan Jacobs Emerging Infectious Disease Ecology Lab. Her research focuses on next generation sequencing for diagnostics, specifically analyzing the microbiome of diseased tissue. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outside with family and friends.

Title:  A sequencing solution: metagenomics to discover diversity and investigate genome completeness in soft-rot and blackleg seed potato infection

 

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 Samantha Fedoush

Samantha Fedoush is currently in the Interdisciplinary Program of Cellular and Molecular Biology and in the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology at Ohio University. Her research in Dr. Sarah Wyatt’s lab focuses on understanding the importance of select E3 ligases and their role in protein turnover in plant gravitropism. Samantha is interested in figuring out protein functions within and across plant tropism with the goal of optimizing plant response to diverse environmental conditions.

Title: The Role of Select E3 Ligases in Plant Gravitropism

2024 Timeline and Dates

 

 

Highlights from the 2023 Plant Sciences Symposium

2023 theme and description

Plant resistance and the extensive research currently being conducted serves as a significant variable in benefiting our world’s growing population. Helping to develop more reliable and efficient plant resistance to pathogens. Which can be utilized within agriculture to enhance the performance of food production. Completed through the promotion of sustainability to reduce land use, water, fuel, and additional inputs. Now more than ever, scientific communication about topics like sustainable futures and plant resistance application is of the utmost importance. Especially as our population continues to grow with the inevitable pressing need of sustenance. The Ohio State Plant Sciences Symposium acknowledges this need, and welcomes the plant sciences community to join us for a discussion about where plant sciences fits in this larger picture of plant resistance, its application, science communication, and sustainability in a more connected world.

 

Careers Workshop Speakers

Catlin Conrad, OSU Career Development

Sean McKay, Franklin Park Conservatory

Cody Neidig, Pure Ohio Wellness

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Invited speakers

Dr. Leslie Holland

Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dr. Leslie Holland is an Assistant Professor in the department of Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She achieved her PhD from the University of California, Davis. Her research program is focused on understanding the biology and management of diseases of fruit crops using applied and basic research. Dr. Holland’s extension program delivers up-to-date information on current and emerging disease diagnosis and integrated disease management practices for cranberry, apple, grape, and other fruit crops grown in Wisconsin. She collaborates with stakeholders, extension educators, crop consultants, and allied industries, to provide educational programming and tools to enhance the productivity and longevity of fruit crop production in Wisconsin.

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Dr. David Cook

Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University

Dr. David Cook is an Associate Professor in the department of Plant Pathology at Kansas State University. He is also the Director of the Plant Pathology Graduate Program. Dr. Cook achieved his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His lab uses a variety of experimental and computational approaches to understand how fungi grow differently when infecting plants vs. when they are in the soil or in laboratory conditions. Dr. Cook uses the Magnaporthe oryzae – Rice pathosystem for this research. Additionally, he is developing novel biotech approaches to improve agronomic defense, response, and performance in the 21^st century. The technology he is developing can address a range of crop and plant science challenges and can impact Kansas, national, and international growers.

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Dr. Anna Testen

Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-ARS Application Technology Research Unit

Dr. Anna Testen is a USDA Research Plant Pathologist with the USDA-ARS Application Technology Research Unit in Wooster, Ohio. She achieved her PhD in Plant Pathology at The Ohio State University where she was named an OSU Presidential Fellow. Dr. Testen was also awarded the U.S. Borlaug Fellowship in Global Food Security in 2013. Her research focuses on the development of methods to improve soil health and disease management in vegetables. Anna has conducted soil health work with tomato farmers in Tanzania and worked on anaerobic soil disinfestation in the United States.

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Dr. David Mackey

Professor, Departments of Horticulture & Crop Science and Molecular Genetics, The Ohio State University

Dr. David Mackey is a professor in the department of Molecular Genetics at The Ohio State University. He achieved his PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Mackey’s research focuses on the interaction between plants and plant-pathogenic bacteria, with projects investigating the nature of the plant immune system and how it is suppressed by bacterial virulence proteins and toxins.

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Student speakers

Piao Yang is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Plant Pathology at The Ohio State University. He is a member of the Xia Lab in Columbus where he studies Plant-Microbe Interactions and Plant Immunity from the perspective of beneficial bacteria. Piao is also passionately interested in Cell Biology, Bioinformatics and Biochemistry.

Nina Ward is pursuing a PhD in Plant Pathology at the Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center where she is studying microbes suspected in grafting failures in domestically grown chestnut trees. In her free time, Nina enjoys searching for mushrooms and hiking (as long as the weather is reasonable). She also greatly enjoys using the iNaturalist app on hikes to determine different taxon in real time.

Gustavo Andrés Garay Rodríguez is a graduate student in the lab of Soledad Benitez Ponce at The Ohio State University in Wooster. His main focus is with microbial communities in soilless crops as hydroponics.

Pifeng Yu is a Ph.D. candidate in Molecular & Cellular Biology and Environmental & Plant Biology at Ohio University. Peifeng is a member of the Hua Lab where he is studying the ubiquitin-26S proteasome system in plants. When not in the lab, Peifeng enjoys basketball and fishing.

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Corteva Speaker

Dr. Bailin Li

Bailin Li is a Corteva Laureate/Fellow at Corteva Agriscience based in Johnston, IA. In his 24 years with the company, his work has mostly been focused on gene discovery for multiple traits with forward genetics approaches. Currently, Bailin’s group takes various approaches to identify and characterize resistance genes for several major diseases in maize and soybean, and to understand the molecular mechanism of plant-pathogen interactions. Bailin earned his BS from Peking University (China) and PhD from Purdue University.

 

 

Highlights from the 2019 Plant Sciences Symposium

In March 2019, The Ohio State University hosted its 2nd annual inaugural Plant Sciences Symposium, ‘Planting Profitability Using Interdisciplinary Approaches.’ This symposium aimed to provide a platform to showcase the many approaches in plant sciences used to increase productivity of various ornamental, vegetable, and field crops.

The 2019 symposium was honored to have four keynote speakers representing diverse areas of industry and academic research from multiple universities, including The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Iowa State University, and University of North Texas.

The 2019 symposium offered its participants tours of the Ohio State Stadium Turf Science Tour, the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center, and the Ornamental Plant Germplasm Center. Workshops and panel discussions focused on science communication.

The student speaker and poster competition featured research from multiple specialized fields within the field of plant science, including plant pathology, plant biotechnology, plant breeding, entomology, weed science, plant-based medicinal chemistry, etc.

The symposium was free for all participants in person as well as via webinar. There was a total of 102 people participated the symposium in person, and 3 participated via Webinar. The participants came from industry and universities in Ohio and in other parts of the country and the world.

Thank you to our major sponsors below for their generous donations for the symposium.

Thank you to all of the sponsors, speakers, participants and organizers who made the 2019 Plant Sciences Symposium a successful event. We hope to see many familiar and new faces at the 2021 Plant Sciences Symposium!