Breaking News
Genomes Assembled from Five Cotton Species Could Lead to Better Varieties
Cotton producers in Texas, elsewhere in the US and around the world are looking for new varieties that can better withstand droughts, pests and pathogens, yet yield higher-quality fibers for the textile industry. To help accelerate the breeding and improvement of cotton varieties, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and elsewhere teamed up to produce the reference-grade genomes of all five species, including two cultivated cottons. Their results were published in the journal Nature
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Researchers Create Largest Ever Map of Plant Proteins and Their Assemblies
In a new paper in Cell, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin offer the largest survey to date of proteins in plants, examining 13 different species across 1.1 billion years of plant evolution. Their findings could have practical applications such as increasing crop yields, understanding disease and stress resistance in plants and informing biofuel production.
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Scientists Uncover RNA Silencing Technique to Change Seed Size in Plants
In a development with promising implications for crop farmers in the U.S. and around the world, scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have figured out how to get some plants to produce nearly one-third bigger seeds. Full Article
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Biologists Find Day and Night Pathways Regulating Plant Growth Vigor
Scientists are slowly unravelling the complex molecular pathways that regulate growth vigor in plant hybrids, with the goal of eventually developing hybrid crops that can grow faster and more productively, while at the same time doing a better job of resisting stress such as heat, drought and pests. Many crops such as corn are grown as hybrids for better yield and traits.
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Graduate and Postdoc Positions
Positions are available for motivated scientists to test gene expression and epigenetic changes in plant hybrids and polyploids with a research focus on elucidating molecular mechanisms for hybrid vigor and seed development in Arabidopsis or fiber cell development in cotton. Candidates should have a Ph.D. in Plant Biology, Genetics, Computational Biology or
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First Step Taken Toward Epigenetically Modified Cotton
AUSTIN, Texas, May 31, 2017 — With prices down and weather patterns unpredictable, these are tough times for America’s cotton farmers, but new research led by Z. Jeffrey Chen at The University of Texas at Austin might offer a break for the industry. He and a team have taken the first step toward a new way of breeding heartier, more productive cotton through a process called epigenetic modification.
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Upland cotton: an improved sequence will advance fiber, fuel and food applications
April 11, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire: A consortium led by Z. Jeffrey Chen of The University of Texas at Austin and Jane Grimwood and Jeremy Schmutz of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology has made publicly available a significantly improved high-quality genome sequence of Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum). This sequence of the species making up greater than 90% of the world’s spinnable cotton fiber builds upon previous genome sequences published in the past five years. The data is downloadable at DOE JGI Phytozome
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Other News
April 20, 2015
A University of Texas at Austin scientist, working with an international research team, has developed the most precise sequence map yet of U.S. cotton and will soon create an even more detailed map for navigating the complex cotton genome. Full Story. The research in the USA team is supported by
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June 3, 2013
In 2008, Jeff Chen caused a stir in the world of plant biology when he identified a key mechanism of “hybrid vigor” in the common experimental plant, Arabidopsis. Now, thanks to NSF…he and his colleagues are expanding their investigation of hybrid vigor to corn, which is the biggest crop in the United States. Advances in understanding hybrid vigor in corn could lead to big increases in yield. Full Story
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September 16, 2012
Congratulations to Danny Ng, who is now an Assistant Professor of Biology at Hong Kong Baptist University.
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April 11, 2012
Seed size is controlled by small RNA molecules inherited from a plant’s mother, a discovery from scientists at the University of Texas at Austin that has implications for agriculture and understanding plant evolution. NSF News from the Field and
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December 20, 2011
Jeff Chen is elected as a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In November 2011, the AAAS Council elected 539 members as AAAS Fellows. These individuals will be recognized for their contributions to science and technology at the Fellows
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November 9, 2010
Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge – Plant geneticist Z. Jeff Chen has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to work at the University of
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September 15, 2010
Cotton Fiber Genomics – Dr. Z. Jeffrey Chen and his colleagues will use next-generation DNA sequencing technologies to study the genomics of fiber production in cotton, the largest
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