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The School of Plant Sciences is a vigorous, cutting-edge, and comprehensive academic unit of the University of Arizona, whose scientists are devoted to the study of plants, the organisms that underpin the survival of terrestrial life. Research programs within the School examine how plants grow, how they respond to their environment, how they evolved, how they can be manipulated, and their fungal, bacterial, and viral interactions. more...

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FEATURED FACULTY

David Galbraith works on the development of novel technologies and platforms for the analysis of the molecular properties of plant cells, tissues and organs. Part of his current activities is directed toward the analysis of cell type-specific gene expression.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Mon, 08/26/2013 - 7:12pm
(Event)
Fall semester starts on Aug. 26, 2013.
The current local time is MST

Monica Schmidt and Eliot Herman along with Brad Warner at the Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, MO received an NIH grant to produce epidermal growth factor in soybean seeds as a means to prevent necrotizing endocolitis (NEC).  NEC is a bacterial infection leading to a high death rate in premature babies.  Read more at UA News and Medicalxpress.com.

Eric Lyons appeared on Arizona Public Media (AZPM) television program AZ Illustrated as a panel participant to discuss the G-8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture.  The conference calls on global leaders to consider agricultural data: how to share it, how to use it, and how it might help address global food security.  Check out the online video at AZPM.

Betsy Arnold has been named as one of the four 2013 recipients for the 1885 Society Distinguished Scholars Award. The award was established to recognize outstanding mid-career faculty who are leading experts in their fields and highly valued contributors to the teaching, research, and outreach missions of the University of Arizona. Congratulations, Betsy! Read more about the award …

Dr. Eric Lyons' comparative genomics software system, CoGe, was used extensively to unravel the evolution history of the carnivorous bladderwort plant.  As one of the smallest plant genomes discovered, its genome challenges the notion that vast quantities of noncoding DNA are crucial for complex life.  Read more at UA News and Nature.

Dr. Xiangfeng Wang’s laboratory reported a correlation across genes in the rates of sequence and expression evolution and showed evidence that genes expressed broadly across organs tend to evolve their expression patterns more slowly. The computational analysis of transcriptome data was published in the Plant Cell (Yang and Wang, 2013) and featured in the Plant Cell In Brief (Hoffman, 2013).