Eliot Herman

Retired, Professor - School of Plant Sciences, Bio5
520-626-1641

Educational Background

  • BA, Biology, 1973, College of Creative Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • MA, Biology, 1975, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Ph.D, Biology, 1980, University of California, San Diego
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, 1980-81, California Institute of Technology
  • Postdoctoral Associate, 1981-84, University of California, Riverside
  • Asst. Research Biochemist, 1984, University of California, Riverside

Research Interests

  • Plant Cell Biology
  • Seed Biology
  • Plant Biotechnology
  • Food allergy

Selected Publications

Schmidt MA, Barbazuk WB, Stanford M, May G, Song Z, Hong W, Nikolau BJ, Herman EM (2011) Silencing of soybean seed storage proteins results in a rebalanced protein composition preserving seed protein content without major collateral changes in the metabolome and transcriptome. Plant Physiology 156:330-345
Herman EM, Burks AW (2011) The impact of plant biotechnology on food allergy. Curr. Opinion Biotechnology 22: 224-30
JK Miller, Herman EM, Jahn M and Bradford KJ (2010) Strategic Research, Education and Policy Goals for Seed Science and Crop Improvement. Plant Science 179: 645-652
Herman EM and Schmidt MA (2010) Industrial Protein Production Crops - New Needs and New Opportunities. GM Crops, (inaugural cover article) 1:2-7.
Bilyeu K, Ren C, Nguyen HT, Herman E, and Sleper DA. (2009). Association of a four basepair insertion in the P34 gene with the low allergen trait in soybean. The Plant Genome 2:141-148
Herman EM (2008) Endoplasmic reticulum bodies: Solving the insoluble. Curr. Opinion in Plant Biology. 11:672-679
Schmidt MA and Herman EM (2008) Suppression of soybean oleosin produces micro-oil bodies that aggregate into oil body/ER complexes. Molec Plant 1:910- 924
Schmidt MA, and Herman EM (2008) Proteome rebalancing in soybean seeds can be exploited to enhance foreign protein accumulation. Plant Biotech J 6: 832- 842
Barrows FT., Bellis D, Krogdahl A, Silverstein JT, Herman EM, Sealey WM, Rust MB, Gatlin III DM. (2007) Report of the plant products in aquafeed strategic planning workshop: An integrated, interdisciplinary research roadmap for increasing utilization of plant feedstuffs in diets for carnivorous fish. Aquaculture Res 38:551-579
Livingstone III DP, Beilinson V, Kalayaeva M, Schmidt MA, Herman EM and Nielsen NC (2007) Reduction of protease inhibitor activity by expression of a mutant Bowman-Birk gene in soybean seed. Plant Molec Biol 64:397-408
Moravec T, Schmidt MA, Herman EM, and Woodford-Thomas T (2006) Production of Escherichia coli heat labile toxin (LT) B subunit in soybean seed and its analysis of its immunogenicity as an oral vaccine. Vaccine 25:1647-1657
Herman EM, Rotter K, Premakumar R, Elwinger R, Bae R, Ehler-King L, Chen S, and Livingston III DP (2006) Additional freeze hardiness in wheat acquired by exposure to -3oC is associated with extensive physiological, morphological and molecular changes. J Exp Bot 57:1-18
Josephs LM, Hymowitz T, Schmidt MA, and Herman EM (2006) Evaluation of Glycine germplasm for nulls of the immunodominant allergen P34/Gly m Bd 30k. Crop Sci. 46:1755-1763
Bachvaroff T, Concepcion GT, Rogers CR, Herman EM, Delwiche CF (2004) Dinoflagellate expressed sequence tag data indicate massive transfer of chloroplast genes to the nuclear genome. Protist 155:65-78
Dwivedi RS, Breiman A, and Herman EM. (2003) Differential distribution of the cognate and heat-stress induced isoforms of high Mr a cis-trans prolyl peptidyl isomerase in the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm. J Exp Bot 54:2679-2689
Herman EM, Helm R, Jung R, and Kinney AC (2003) Genetic modification removes an immunodominant allergen from soybean. Plant Physiol 132:36-43
Krogdahl, Å, Herman, E, Storebakken T, Jaramillo Torres A, Kortner T, Hymowitz T, Schmidt M, Teimouri S, Li, Y, Gamil A, Chikwati E (2020) Removal of three proteinaceous antinutrients from soybean does not mitigate soybean-induced enteritis in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar, L). Aquaculture 514: 734495. Doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2019.734495.
Hashimoto-Hill, S, Kim, M, Friesen, L, Kolap.AM, Herman, E, Schinckel A, Kim, C. (2019) Differential food allergy responses in outbred swine lines selected for reactivity to soy antigens. Allergy doi.org/10.1111/all.13757
Schmidt, MA, Herman, EM (2018) Characterization and functional biology of the soybean aleurone layer. BMC Plant Biology 18:354. dio.org/10.1186/s12870-018-1579-8
Isani, M, Illingsworth, L, Herman, EM, Schmidt MS, Barron L, Bowling J, Elizer M, Bai I, Gayer C, Grishin A, Erwin C, Ford HR, Warner BW. (2018) Soybean-derived recombinant Human EGF protects against experimental necrotizing enterocolitis. J Pediatric Surgery. doi.org/10.1016/j.pedsurg.2018.02.084
Chrispeels MJ and Herman, EM (2017) Traits that benefit the food industry and the consumer. In Plants, Genes and Agriculture: Sustainability through biotechnology. (Ed MJ Chrispeels) Chapter 17. Sinauer Associates, Sutherland, MA . (Textbook)
Chrispeels MJ and Herman, EM (2017) Traits that benefit farmers and industry. In Plants, Genes and Agriculture: Sustainability through biotechnology (Ed MJ Chrispeels) Chapter 16. Sinauer Associates, Sutherland, MA.
Herman, EM (2017) Reducing allergenic properties in soybean. In Achieving sustainable cultivation of soybeans (Ed. Henry Nguyen). Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing Limited
He, Y, Schmidt, MA, Erwin, CE, Guo, J, Sun, R, Pendarvis, K, Warner, BW, Herman, EM (2016) Transgenic soybean production of bioactive human epidermal growth factor (EGF). PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0157034
Schmidt, MA, Hymowitz, T, Herman, EM (2015) Breeding and characterization of soybean Triple Null; a stack of recessive alleles of Kunitz Trypsin Inhibitor, Soybean Agglutinin, and P34 allergen nulls. Plant Breeding 134: 310-315 DOI: 10.1111/pbr.12265
Herman, EM (2014) Soybean Seed Proteome Rebalancing. Front. Plant Sci. 5:437. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2014.00437
Schmidt, MA, Parrott, WA, Hildebrand, DF, Berg, RH, Cooksey, A, Pendarvis, K, He, Y, McCarthy, F, and Herman, EM (2015) Transgenic soya bean seeds accumulating -carotene exhibit the collateral enhancements of oleate and protein content traits. Plant Biotechnol. J. 13: 590-600. doi: 10.1111/pbi.12286
Herman EM (2013) The Challenge To Meet Global Need For Protein Sources For Animal Production. In: 21st Century Borders/Synthetic Biology: Focus on Responsibility & Governance, convened by the Institute on Science for Global Policy (ISGP) Dec. 4–7, 2012

Research Areas

  • Biochemistry and Physiology
  • Cell and Developmental Biology
  • Genomics, Bioinformatics, and Systems Biology