Plant Biology Division

Michael Udvardi, Ph.D., was recently selected as senior vice president and director of the Plant Biology Division.
Principal investigator Elison Blancaflor, Ph.D., and his team are preparing to launch another round of Arabidopsis (thale cress) seedlings into outer space.
Noble Foundation researcher, Kiran Mysore, Ph.D., pioneers new method for building disease resistance in crops.
Rick Nelson knows life is a lot like golf. It's all about timing, not taking yourself too seriously and being willing to spend a little time in the rough.

Divisional faculty

Elison Blancaflor, Ph.D.,
Professor

Rujin Chen, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor

Kelly Craven, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor

Kiran Mysore, Ph.D.,
Professor

Rick Nelson, Ph.D.,
Professor & Research Administrator

Wolf Scheible, Ph.D.,
Professor

Lloyd Sumner, Ph.D.,
Professor

Michael Udvardi, Ph.D.,
Senior Vice President & Division Director

Xiaoqiang Wang, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor

Patrick Zhao, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor

Featured Research

For more than 20 years, the Plant Biology Division has conducted fundamental biochemical, genetic and genomic plant research.

A primary research focus includes understanding and improving legumes. The Noble Foundation is recognized internationally for contributions to the scientific community and, in particular, its efforts to advance the legume Medicago truncatula as the genomic model for the study of all legumes, including economically significant crops such as soybean, alfalfa, clover and peanut.

The division's studies range from the potential use of plants to produce health-benefitting natural compounds, such as anthocyanins, tannins and isoflavonoids, to the study of beneficial microorganisms that live within plants and enhance plant performance and stress tolerance.

The Plant Biology Division is also recognized for its contribution to the field of plant cell wall engineering. The outcomes of this work will extend from the pastures - enabling new forages that are more easily digested by grazing livestock - to tomorrow's biorefineries, providing new, advanced cellulosic feedstocks that have the potential to yield more liquid biofuels per acre.

During the past year, the Plant Biology Division:

maintained eleven primary Noble Foundation laboratories;

received extramural support from the National Science Foundation; U.S. Department of Agriculture/National Institute of Food and Agriculture; Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology; U.S. Department of Energy; National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (National Institutes of Health); the state of Oklahoma (Consortium for Legume Research and Oklahoma Bioenergy Center); and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration;

held 12 adjunct faculty positions at seven institutions of higher education: Oklahoma State University, Rice University, Texas A&M University, University of Oklahoma and the University of North Texas;

served on 13 editorial boards;

published 72 peer-reviewed papers in international journals including Plant Physiology, Plant Journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Plant Cell; and

received $2,548,341 in new extramural funding from both public and private sources.

Sun, L., Zhang, H., Li, D., Huang, L., Hong, Y., Ding, X-S., Nelson, R. S., Zhou, X. & Song, F. (2013). Functions of rice NAC transcriptional factors, ONAC122 and ONAC131, in defense responses against Magnaporthe grisea. Plant Molecular Biology, 81, 41–56 doi:10.1007/s11103-012-9981-3.

Ramegowda, V., Senthil-Kumar, M., Ishiga, T., Kaundal, A., Udayakumar, M. & Mysore, K. S. (2013). Drought stress acclimation imparts tolerance to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Pseudomonas syringae in Nicotiana benthamiana. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 14, 9497-9513 10.3390/ijms14059497.

Udvardi, M. K. & Poole, P. S. (2013). Transport and Metabolism in Legume-Rhizobia Symbioses. Annual Review of Plant Biology, 64, 781-805 doi: 10.1146/annurev-arplant-050312-120235.

Lee, S., Yang, D - S., Sumner, L. W. & Mysore, K. S. (2013). Suppression of plant defense responses by extracellular metabolites from Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci in Nicotiana benthamiana. BMC Plant Biology, 13, 65 10.1186/1471-2229-13-65.

Bourcy, M., Brocard, L., Pislariu, C., Cosson, V., Mergaert, P., Tadege, M., Mysore, K. S., Udvardi, M. K., Gourion, B. & Ratet, P. (2013). Medicago truncatula DNF2 is a PI-PLC-XD-containing protein required for bacteroid persistence and prevention of nodule early senescence and defense-like reactions . New Phytologist, 197 (4), 1250-1261 10.1111/nph.12091 MAR 2013 .

Verdier, J., Torres-Jerez, I., Wang, M., Andriankaja, A., Allen, S. N., He, J., Tang, Y., Murray, J. & Udvardi, M. K. (2013). Establishment of the Lotus japonicus Gene Expression Atlas (LjGEA) and its use to explore legume seed maturation. Plant Journal, March, 10.1111/tpj.12119.