Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Thirteen University of California, Riverside (UCR) undergraduate students with sophomore to senior status were awarded a U-SPARC fellowship due to their interest in pursing an Agriculturally related career in 2021. One dropped out of the program, leaving twelvestudents.The U-SPARC fellowsparticipated in formal classroom instruction through the Botany and Plant Sciencesclass "Seminars in Agricultural Careers in the 21st Century" in 2022 in which they prepared their resumes, learned about the career paths of B.S. to Ph.D. level scientists, interviewed scientists, gave an oral presentation and posted their interviews on the U-SPARC website http://www.usparc.org. On August 24th, eight of the U-SPARC fellows presented posters at an undergraduate symposium("Research in Science and Engineering program" RISE)at UCR.U-SPARC sutdents started working in labs during the Winter and Spring Quarters for ~10 hours a week. Those that did not graduate this yearparticipatedin full- time (40 hours/week) lab research over a ten-week periodwith mentors at UCR. The demographics of the students awarded the U-SPARC fellowship in 2021/2022 are 4 HIspanic/Latina women, 3 Asian women, 2 Black men, 1 Asian man and 3 Hispanic/Latinomen majoring in Biology, Entymology, Plant Biologyor other Agriculturally related fields. Summer research experience provided valuable mentoring skills tograduate students that served as direct U-SPARC mentors. In total since the inception of the U-SPARC program, 29 students were supported by this grant, 13 Hispanic/Latina women, 5 Hispanic/Latino men, 2 Black women, 2 Black men, 5 Asian women, and 1 Asian man. 4 former students are pursuing PhDs in Plant Biology,several more are pursuing MDs or MD/PhDs. At least three people mentioned that information they got during the seminar course helped them secure a job. Changes/Problems:This year, we supported more students due to previous problems supporting students during campus closures during the COVID pandemic. Two of these students were former U-SPARC fellows (from 2020/2021) that continued to perform research. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Students worked in labs directly with lab mentors (usually PhD students) and their PIs. Here are a few abstracts from the students that participated in the undergraduate symposium: a) from Melvin Hodanu: Title: Understanding the Role of BBX Transcription Factors in Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis Abstract The World Health Organization reports food insecurity has been climbing slowly for six years and now affects about 30 percent of the world's population. This is caused by a combination of an increasing number of countries that experience climate extremes and the loss of crop yield per degree warming. Our overarching goal is to understand the mechanisms of abiotic stress response in the model organism, Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) such that conserved tolerance responses can be engineered in crops for greater yield. Specifically, how plants respond to heat and drought stresses which is not fully understood. The circadian clock is an internal biological system that helps plants coordinate important biological processes with environmental changes through the regulation of gene expression. Previous research in Arabidopsis identified that most members of a transcription factor gene family, B-box (BBXs), respond to heat stress and for some in a time-of-day dependent context. Identifying the relationship, whether causal or correlational, is one of the goals of our research project. Thus, we are creating bbx mutant lines using CRISPR/Cas9. Verified lines will be used to measure physiological parameters such as relative water content, photosynthetic efficiency, and average shoot biomass in response to heat and drought treatments to help identify a functional role for selected BBXs in clock regulation of stress tolerance. b) from Alondra Contreras: Title:Using Cell Markers to Understand Dynamic Cell Plate Localization in Zea mays The presence of a cell plate is a marker of where the cell wall will form. Plant cells have developed complex structures that determine cell wall formation such as the preprophase band (PPB) and phragmoplast. The PPB is a cortical array of microtubules that predicts the future division site, while the phragmoplast promotes transport of cell wall-building materials to the proposed site and builds a cell plate. In my research, I hope to understand the dynamics of cell plate formation by examining the localization of proteins that are involved in endomembrane dynamics or cell plate formation. To determine whether these proteins rely on the integrity of the phragmoplast for cell plate localization, particle tracking and chemical treatments of Chlorpropham and Endosidin 7 will be used to investigate the proteins' cell plate interactions. Particle tracking will require protein visualization using transgenic fusions with fluorescent proteins. Quanitative data will be collected from live cell imaging of plants that contain the transgenic markers using a spinning disk confocal microscope (100X lens). The rate of particle travel over time will be obtained from kymographs generated from particle tracking during mitosis. If these proteins do not show abnormal results with chemical treatment, further investigation will be done to characterize the endomembrane compartments in which these proteins travel on. This research will serve as an informational platform for cell plate dynamics and protein interactions. c) from Diane Nguyen. Title:THE LINK BETWEEN GENETIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGE IN A LONG TERM EVOLUTIONARY EXPERIMENT Adaptation in multicellular organisms is often ascribed to shifts in developmental patterning. But, the process of developmental evolution is rarely observed in real time. Here, we characterize developmental variation in seed shape across half a century of evolution in a long term experiment with barley, the composite cross II (CCII). We comprehensively characterized 37,948 seeds for variation in shape using computerized tomography (CT) scans of 875 individual spikes collected from generations F 0 , F 18 , and F 58 in the CCII. Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) was then used to extract 12 dimension-reduced morphological traits. Evolution of seed phenotypes by itself can predict the results of whole genome sequencing of the population, suggesting that selection has driven changes in morphology over time. We pinpoint the genomic basis of adaptive shifts in seed morphology in the population using genome wide association studies (GWAS). Our work directly links selection on developmental evolutionary change to molecular variation over the course of half a century of evolution. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The U-SPARC website, u-sparc.org, provides a public-facing website for information about careers in agriculturally related fields. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1) To address lack of awareness about the many jobs available in agrigulture, we developed and taught a course that provided awaresness about agriculturally related jobs called BPSC191 "Seminars in Agriculturally Related Careers in the 21st Century". U-SPARC students took the course every year, except Spring2021 which was cancelled due to COVID related campus-wide shut downs. In this class, students hear about the careers of many professionals working in Agriculturally related fields. This year, one of the speakers was Dr. Jorge Ferreira, a Research Scientist in Plant Physiologyat the USDA-Salinity Labs located near UC Riverside. He spoke of working at the USDA, and his career path, including where he received his PhD, and what brought him to the USDA Salinity labs. Another speaker was Ms. Janine Almanzor, a Curator/Education coordinator at the UCR Botanic Garden. Other speakers included people working at companies such as Guividan or Bayer, a biologylab coordinator and a current PhD student at UCR. In addition, students interviewed professionals with jobs in teaching at the college level (community college and PUI), jobs in goverment, such as USDA-APHIS, and jobs in industry. 2) To address lack of relevant experiences and lack of technical skills, we have provided students with research stipends during the school year, and during the summer to perform research across labs. During the summer, full-time research was performed for a 10-week period. Students meet regularly with their PI, participate in lab meetings, and participated in an undergraduate symposium at UCR on August 24th.Several abstracts are included in the next section (training and professional development). 3) To address insufficient soft skills required to find and acquire jobs in FANH sciences, our BPSC191 course offered career development advice, such as preparing a resume or CV, writing a cover letter, and praciticing job interview skills. As stated earlier, we have received feedback from several people indicating that this type of soft-skill development helped them get jobs.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Martinez SE, Conn CE, Guercio AM, Sepulveda C, Fiscus CJ, Koenig D, Shabek N, Nelson DC. A KARRIKIN INSENSITIVE2 paralog in lettuce mediates highly sensitive germination responses to karrikinolide. Plant Physiol. 2022 Jul 9:kiac328. doi: 10.1093/plphys/kiac328. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35809069.
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Six University of California, Riverside (UCR) undergraduate students with sophomore or junior status that applied to and were awarded a U-SPARC fellowship due to their interest in pursing an Agriculturally related career in 2020. One dropped out of the program due to COVID-19-related issues, leaving fivestduents served by the project. The U-SPARC fellows (from 2020-2021) participated in formal classroom instruction through the class "Seminars in AgriculturalCareers in the 21st Century" in 2020 in which they prepared their resumes, learned about the career paths of B.S. to Ph.D. level scientists, interviewed scientists, gave an oral presentation and posted their interviews on the U-SPARC website http://www.u-sparc.org. In addition, the U-SPARC sutdents participated mostly virtually in lab research with mentors at UCR. The five studentsworked ~7hours per week during the 2020 Fall-Spring Quarterr. One student is currently working full-time (40 hours per week, ending 08/31/2021), while another is working ~10 hours/week. Two U-SPARC fellows graduated in Spring and one dropped the program. The U-SPARC fellows are preparing an abstract and a video describing their summer research experience that will be posted on the U-SPARC website. The demographics of the students awarded the U-SPARC fellowship are 3 Latina women, 1 Blackman, and 1 Latino/White man majoring in Biology or Agriculturally related fields. In addition to the 5 U-SPARC fellows, summer research experience provided valuable mentoring skills to twograduate students that served as direct U-SPARC mentors. Changes/Problems:This year (2021) the BPSC191 course was cancelled due to under-enrollment. Further, campus closures prevented undergraduates from performing research in person, which limitedmany opportunities. Several virtual projects were hosted focused on plant-pathogen interactions and microtubule dynamic analysis. With campus now open (from May 2021-current), we anticipate recruiting a new cohort of U-SPARC fellows soon. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?U-SPARC fellows had several opportunities for training and professional development. These opportunities include1) Individual training and mentorship in a laboratory setting, usually involving group and one-on-one meeting with the laboratory mentor and the laboratory principal investigator 2) resume and interview training during BPSC191 and 3) presenting their research to peers during lab meetings. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The U-SPARC website http://u-sparc.org provides information about students and their research topics as well as interviews with professionals with careers in Agriculturally-Related jobs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, we will teach BPSC191 Seminars in Agriculturally Related Careers, we will recruit 10 students to work in labs from Fall-Summer. Lab work will be donein person if possible, with the option of switching to virtual if needed. We will offer BPSC191 in the Spring Quarter.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the reporting period, we continued to mentor five former U-SPARC fellows that were recruited in 2020and provided them with stipends to performresearch, provided mentoring. Students interviewed professionals in Agriculturally-related careers, posted here: usparc.org. Students prepared their resumes, and learned about the job interview process. One studentused thepractical information about resume development and interviewing to geta job in a biotech company while another is pursuing a post-baccalaureate position at UCSF. Two other students are continuing as U-SPARC fellows. Two representative abstracts from research performed with U-SPARC fellowships are below. Other abstracts will be posted to our website in September.The evaluation of our BPSC191course is an anonymous survey with someresults highlightedafter the abstracts and the full survey results linked here. "My name is Dawson Byrd and I am a fourth-year Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology Major funded by U-SPARC. I work with Dr. Kerry Mauck in the Department of Entomology studying the gut content analysis of sap-feeding insects. Our research investigates if plant genetic information can be stored in the gut content of psyllids and aphids. This research is vital because it can be used to study the spread and transmission of pathogens between host plants and their associated insect vector. Gut content analysis has only been performed for a few psyllid species and has never been explored in insect vectors that feed similarly. To address these knowledge gaps, I use specialized DNA extraction methods to purify plant genetic material ingested by psyllids. These DNA extracts are then used in a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) where we can amplify the chloroplast trnL gene sequence to screen for the potential storage of plant DNA. We anticipate that both the aphids and psyllids have the ability to ingest and retain plant DNA and that the encoded information can reveal the hosts of plant pathogens that sap-feeding insects consume in their respective habitats. This study and its techniques will guide future work in the exploration of the origin of emerging insect-transmitted pathogens found in agriculture. Studying the transmission of diseases between insects and plants on a molecular level will help researchers gain a better understanding of the significance of the relationship between entomology and plant pathology and how it affects ecological health." From Gabriela Salazar, a fourth-year student at UCR funded by U-SPARC: "In the fall of 2020, I started working in Dr. Rasmussen's lab observing microtubules and their trajectories by measuring their dynamic properties in maize epidermal cells.I measured microtubule movement by generating kymographs, which are used to assess microtubule growth and shrinkage rates. I found that microtubule dynamics in maize tends to be slower in interphase (non-dividing) cells. More recently, I have started working in person with a graduate student, Stephanie Martinez, and have shifted my focus to understanding how maize seedlings respond to salt stress. For this project, we have prepared three different salt treatments for wild-type maize and four different mutants and have monitored the germination rate of the seedlings daily for a total of ten days. After measuring the root lengths of each seedling, we will better understand how salinity affects the growth of wild-type maize compared with the mutants." Here were the comments from the prompt " Please describe how you have used the skills and knowledge you gained from participating in U-SPARC in your classes, research, and/or job": One of the most important skills I have learned from participating in U-SPARC is the ability to read and understand scientific literature. Although I still have more practicing to do, at least now I find it manageable. Before U-SPARC, I thought scientific literature was above me and thought it wasn't important until I reached grad school, but now I see how important it is in strengthening my critical thinking skills as well as learning more experiments. Working in Dr. Mauck's Entomology/Plant Pathology Lab has taught me that in research, skill is just as important as mindset and attitude. Research takes so much patience and persistence that if you're not willing to stay determined in face of challenges, your progression will eventually reach a ceiling. Having the proper training and skill set comes with patiences as well. Many of the instruments and procedures we work with can be very sensitive to even the smallest mistakes, and in research, it's inevitable that something eventually won't go according to plan. From pipetting, to transferring plants in the green house, everything takes patience and determination. I am using my personality to my advantage rather than being anxious about myself. I overall have more confidence in what to look for in a job market which leads me to be more confident at a job because I know I am well suited for the place. Always asking questions during interviews. I was not able to participate in research due to COVID-19. Some of the coding skills I learned in the research portion of this fellowship have been used at my current position as a Laboratory Research Scientist at a biotech company post undergrad.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Six University of California, Riverside (UCR) undergraduate students with sophomore or junior status that applied to and were awarded a U-SPARC fellowship due to their interest in pursing an Agriculturally related career were served by the project. The U-SPARC fellows participated in formal classroom instruction through the class "Seminars in AgriculturalCareers in the 21st Century" in which they prepared their resumes, learned about the career paths of B.S. to Ph.D. level scientists, interviewed scientists, gave an oral presentation and posted their interviews on the U-SPARC website http://www.u-sparc.org. These students were also accepted into UCR labs to do research during the Spring Quarter and Summer. Unfortunately, UCR campus closed and remains closed to undergraduate students since mid-March due to the Covid19 pandemic. We postponed the research component of the U-SPARC program for all but one student because most UCR mentor labs did not have a suitable online-only research project. The demographics of the students awarded the U-SPARC fellowship are 3 Latina women, 1 Black man, 1 Latino man and 1 Asian woman majoring in Biology or Agriculturally related fields. Changes/Problems:The campus closure prevented students from performing research during the Spring Quarter or over the Summer, except one, as described previously. We have delayed our research fellowships until students are again allowed on campus. We have also started working with Professor Tarek Azzam (UC Santa Barbara) to perform our evaluations instead of SmartStart, a company that no longer exists. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One student worked remotely on a project to develop an R app, but stopped working after the Spring Quarter. The student that has continued working remotely over the summer has been participating in an online bioinformatics course. In addition she worked on a project totrack the growth and development of insect vectors on plants with and without a primed immune system. The goal is to determine if priming anti-pathogen defenses for attack also confers resistance against insect vectors that transmit pathogens. This project contributed to efforts in the Mauck lab aimed at characterizing plant defenses against psyllids and developing therapies to combat psyllid-borne bacterial pathogens. Shereceived a package of supplies to grow miniature tomato plants that would later be inoculated with Bactericera cockerelli. The package contained a container with a small, pre-measured amount of priming agent (acibenzolar-S-methyl). At specific points in the growth of the plants, the priming agent was applied to the soil, with control plants receiving water. After priming,she received Bactericera cockerelli insects, that were released into cages as directed. The adult insects laid eggs on the plants for 5 days, after which they were removed using an aspirator. She counted the number of eggs laid on the plants and monitored at several later points for nymphs, nymph progression through instars, and adult emergence. She learned techniques in plant culture, insect rearing, insect physiology and development, and data analysis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Typically, some U-SPARC students participate in community outreach with elementary school students, but these have been canceled due to the pandemic. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our plan is to offer the students their paid research positions as soon as campus opens.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the reporting period, we selected six new U-SPARC fellows, provided mentoring and letters of recommendation to one U-SPARC fellow applying for a biotech job and to one U-SPARC fellow that got into the Plant Biology Graduate Program at UC Riverside and UC Davis. Professor Rasmussen taught the BPSC191 course that Professors Nelson and Rasmussen jointly developed to introduce students to Agriculturally-related careers. Students worked in groups tointerview professionals in Agriculturally-related careers. Their interviews are posted here: www.u-sparc.org. Students also prepared their resumes, and learned about the job interview process during the BPSC191 course. Unfortunately, the experiential learning research opportunityhas only been fully pursued by one student, since students have not been allowed on campus for research since early March. Most faculty advisors did not have an online-only project that they could offer our U-SPARC fellows on short notice.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Six University of California, Riverside (UCR) undergraduate students with sophomore or junior status that applied to and were awarded a U-SPARC fellowship due to their interest in pursing an Agriculturally related career were served by the project. The U-SPARC fellows participated in formal classroom instruction through the class "Seminars in AgriculturalCareers in the 21st Century" in which they prepared their resumes, learned about the career paths of B.S. to Ph.D. level scientists, interviewed scientists, gave an oral presentation and posted their interviews on the U-SPARC website http://www.u-sparc.org. In addition, the U-SPARC sutdents participated directly in lab research with mentors at UCR. They worked for 10 hours per week during the 2019 Spring Quarter (03/2019-06/2019) and then full-time (40 hours per week) for 10 weeks over the summer (ending 08/31/2019). The U-SPARC fellows are preparing an abstract and a video describing their summer research experience that will be posted on the U-SPARC website. The demographics of the students awarded the U-SPARC fellowship are 3 Latina women, 1 Blackwoman, 1 Latino man and 1 Egyptian-American woman majoring in Biology or Agriculturallyrelated fields. In addition to the 6 U-SPARC fellows, summer research experience provided valuable mentoring skills to six graducate students or postdoctoral researchers that served as direct U-SPARC mentors. Changes/Problems:Smart Start, our evaluator, no longer exists. In the future, we plan to work with someone at UCR to survey our students. We anticipate this change will reduce costs needed for external evaulation. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?U-SPARC fellows have had numerous opportunities for training and professional development. These opportunities fall into three categories: 1) Individual training and mentorship in a laboratory setting, usually involving group and one-on-one meeting with the laboratory mentor and the laboratory principal investigator 2) Individual and group meetings with PI Rasmussen and Co-PI Nelsonto discuss career plans and graduate schoolsand 3) Presenting their research at conferences and symposia. Six U-SPARC fellowspresented their research during the UCR Undergraduate Symposium on May 14 and 15, 2019 http://ssp.ucr.edu/symposium/. Two U-SPARC fellows also presented their research at a USDA-HSI conference hosted by American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education(AAHHE) in 2018.More recently, one U-SPARC fellow presented a poster at the Plant Biology 2019 meeting hosted by the American Society of Plant Biologists. Finally, three U-SPARC fellows presented posters at UCR during a joint U-SPARC and NSF-REU end-of-summer research symposium. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of the first two years of the U-SPARC fellowship have been disseminated to the public via our website www.usparc.org. Two U-SPARC fellows participated in outreach for two local Elementary Schools in 2019. One event occured atStork Elementary School, Science Night. Another event was held at UCR, when we hosted fifth graders from Highland Elementary School to do hand-on activities and experiments focused on Plant Biology. More information can be found here:https://plantbiology.ucr.edu/news_events/plantdiscovery.html. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to teach BPSC191, Seminars in Agricultural Careers in the 21st Century, continue to mentor and train U-SPARC fellows in applying for graduate school and jobs, write letters of recommendation for them, and continue tochose applicants for our 10-week experiential learning by research.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the reporting period, we selected six new U-SPARC fellows and provided them with stipends to perform summer research, provided mentoring and letters of recommendation to one U-SPARC fellow that gotinto thePlant Biology Graduate Program at UC Davis. Professor David Nelson taught the BPSC191 course that we jointly developed last year to introduce students to Agriculturally-related careers. Students interviewed professionals in Agriculturally-related careers, posted here: u-sparc.org. Students prepared their resumes, and learned about the job interview process. Indeed, one of our students commented that this course was the only source of practical information about resume development and interviewing, and has since gotten a job in a biotech company. The evaluation of our BPSC191course is a survey administered by Smart Startishere: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_niNs8J_XBuTVZzY0t1WktwZW5KbktNWUlvdnFEb2hPWnFn. Two representative abstracts from summer research performed with U-SPARC fellowships are below. Other abstracts and videos will be posted to our website in October. Author: Diana Medina-Yerena, from Linda Walling's lab The protein leucine aminopeptidase A (LAP-A) is found in the wound response pathway of tomato plants and we have shown that LAP-A plays an important role in plant immunity against herbivores. Whether LAP-A plays a role in pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (PST) resistance is still unknown. The pathogenicity of PST depends on both the type III secretion system virulence effector proteins and the phytotoxin COR, which mimics the action of the plant hormone jasmonic acid (JA), and has been shown to induce LAP-A RNA, protein and activity. In this study, we will determine if LAP-A overexpression or downregulation will affect PST infection in tomatoes. Wild type, LapA-overexpression (LapA-OX) and LapA-silenced (LapA-SI) tomato leaves will be infiltrated with coronotine-producing and -deficient PST and mock treatments. We monitor the growth of PST in these plants and compare the gene expression of several sentinel defense-response genes of tomato. The results from this experiment will continue to unravel the underlying molecular mechanisms in plant disease that play a part in the current global threat to food security. Author: Andrew Gomez, from Carolyn Rasmussen's lab In plants, an antiparallel array of microtubules, called the phragmoplast, guides proper positioning of the new cell wall during cell division, which is essential for plant patterning and development. TANGLED1 (TAN1), AUXIN-INDUCED-IN-ROOTS9 (AIR9) and PHRAGMOPLAST ORIENTING KINESIN1 (POK1) and POK2 are microtubule-binding division site marker proteins that orient the phragmoplast toward the cortical division site1,2,3. In Arabidopsis, no single mutant of these proteins produces a discernible phenotype. However, the tan1 air9 and pok1 pok2 double mutants display misoriented divisions as a result of phragmoplast guidance defects. Here, we demonstrate that amino acids 1-132 of TAN1 (TAN1-I) are capable of significantly rescuing the tan1 air9 double mutant. We also show that specific sites of TAN1-I are necessary for interaction with POK1 and appear to be important for TAN1-I localization. Together, this evidence suggests that these amino acids of the TAN1 protein play a crucial role in protein-protein interaction, TAN localization, and cell division plane orientation.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience:Six University of California, Riverside (UCR)undergraduate students with sophomore or junior statusthat applied to and were awarded a U-SPARC fellowship due to their interest in pursing an Agriculturally related career were served by the project.The U-SPARC fellows participated in formal classroom instruction through theclass "Seminars in Agricultural Careers in the 21st Century" in which they prepared their resumes,learned about the career paths of B.S. to Ph.D. level scientists,interviewed scientists, gave an oral presentation and posted their interviews on the U-SPARC websitehttp://www.u-sparc.org. In addition, the U-SPARC sutdents participated directly in lab research with mentors atUCRand with UC Extension. They worked for 10 hours per week during the 2018 Spring Quarter (03/2018-06/2018) and then full-time (40 hours per week)for 10 weeks over the summer (ending 08/31/2018). The U-SPARC fellows are preparing an abstract and a video describing their summer research experience that will be posted on the U-SPARC website. The demographics of the students awarded the U-SPARC fellowship are 3 Latina women majoring in Biology related fields, 1Black woman majoring in Environmental Sciences, 1Latino man majoring in Chemistry, 1Asian woman from a single-parent householdmajoring in Plant Biology. In addition to the 6 U-SPARC fellows,summer research experience provided valuable mentoring skills to graducate students and postdoctoral researchers that served as U-SPARC mentors. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Students were provided opportunities to network at the Agricultural Careers and Industry Professionals Networking Dinner on April 17, 2018. U-SPARC fellows also met with PIs Carolyn Rasmussen and David Nelson to discuss their research projects and any other concerns regularly during their summer research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of the first year of the U-SPARC fellowship have been disseminated to the public via our website www.u-sparc.org.During then next reporting period, currentU-SPARC fellows will present their research during the UCR Undergraduate Symposiumhttp://ssp.ucr.edu/symposium/as well as optionally participate in outreach for two local Elementary Schools, one held at UCR called Plant Discovery Dayhttp://plantbiology.ucr.edu/news_events/plantdiscovery.htmland the other at Stork Elementary School called "Science Night." What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Our goals were 1) to introduce undergraduate students to the many different types of agriculturally related careers via direct interaction with professionals with all levels of education including professors, UC Extension andlab coordinators 2) to provide resume preparation and interview training 3) to provide experiential learning research experiences. 1) Major activities completed: During this reporting period, we created an entirely new class called "Seminars in Agriculturally Related Careers" in which 8 students interviewed scientists, prepared their resumes, learned about interview skills, worked collaboratively in small teams, and heard about diverse career pathsin Agriculture and related fields.6 sophomore or junior students were awarded sitipends to pursue research projects in the Spring and Summer ending with an informational video that they prepared for our website www.u-sparc.org. 2) Data collected: Our external evaluators, Smart Start, surveyed the class to assess learning outcomes. The survey includes two students that were not U-SPARC fellows. The file is available here. 3) Summary statistics and discussion of results. Overall, our first cohort of students has learned a lot about potential agricultural careers. One student has already been offered a job at UC Extension working directly with farmers in Imperial Valley due to his summer research experience. The other students are continuing research in their summer research labs. Each U-SPARC student now has a properly formatted resume, an idea what to expect during an interview, and a solid research project providing them with a clear expectation of they type of work they would do as a researcher in their field of interest. In addition, pairing U-SPARC students with research mentors provides them with someone who can comment directly on their work ethic, abilities and other skills required for getting an agriculturally related job. 4) Key outcomes or other accomplishments realized. A selection of U-SPARC short bios and project abstracts that the students submitted at the end of their fellowships are below. For all of them, please check here. BIO Stephanie Martinez is a third-year student at the University of California, Riverside, majoring in Biology. Currently, she plans to pursue a graduate degree in the biological sciences. Throughout the U-SPARC fellowship, she has been using genetic approaches to study which amino acid sequences in the KAI2 gene have allowed the KAI2 receptor to have greater karrikin responses in various plants. ABSTRACT Studying KAI2 genes of lettuce and tomato to determine the amino acid sequences leading to karrikin perception in KAI2 receptor Fires are devastating occurrences that deplete an area of vegetation. However, for some plant species, fires are necessary for the germination of their seeds. One of the molecules that is responsible for this process are karrikins. They are found in smoke, stimulating seed germination. Studies of how these plants are able to perceive karrikins have led to the discovery of the karrikin signaling pathway. In this genetic pathway, the karrikin receptor KAI2 binds to karrikins and causes SMAX1 to be degraded by the F-box protein MAX2. This genetic pathway is very similar to the strigolactone genetic pathway, in which a paralog of KAI2, D14, binds to strigolactones and causes SMAX1-LIKE6, 7, 8 to be degraded by MAX2. In trying to understand how these two signaling pathways are similar, the evolution of KAI2 is being studied. The KAI2 protein has structural similarities to D14 but KAI2 has a unique ligand-binding pocket shape, attributing to its responsiveness to karrikins instead of strigolactones. By comparing KAI2 orthologs in lettuce and tomato, we can identify amino acid sequences responsible for differences in karrikin sensitivities in plants. Lettuce is a plant species that is highly responsive to karrikins. In a hypocotyl assay that was conducted on arabidopsis seeds that have lettuce KAI2 transgenes, data has shown that L. sativa KAI2 B is more responsive to karrikins than L. sativa KAI2 A. Three tomato KAI2 genes are currently being cloned and inserted into arabidopsis. If there is a tomato KAI2 gene that is more responsive to karrikins, then the amino acid sequences of both the lettuce and the tomato KAI2 genes can be compared to each other. The similarities may also be the amino acid sequences that cause KAI2 to perceive karrikins in plants. BIO Diego Jones is a fourth year Chemistry major at the University of California Riverside. He worked at the U.C. Extension center conducting research focused on water efficiency in the Imperial County. ABSTRACT Throughout the ten weeks I have been at the University of California Extension center there has been a lot of different tasks to do. For the first couple of weeks I traveled to different farms obtaining the salinity levels of their runoff and focused on what kind of irrigation system they were using. During this time, I also learned how to properly take Infrared photos on a Sugar Beet Field and a Klein Grass Field to measure the Canopy percentage as the weeks went on. The research we conducted revolved around Water efficiency and how different irrigation methods would affect different crops. Finding the Canopy percentage helped us monitor the plants growth and ET levels. I also assisted in the maintenance of 1.5 acres of olive trees, I had to constantly check the Surface drip tape for damage and keep a log of the amount of water it was irrigated. There were many other tasks but the top priority was the networking that surrounded this research. The primary goal of the extension center is to assist the farmers by conducting research related to their needs, this involved a lot of collaboration with new people. The course syllabus is here.
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