Pamela Ronald

Pamela C. Ronald (born 1961) is an American plant pathologist and geneticist . ^[1] She is a professor in the Genome Center and the Department of Plant Pathology, ^[2] and founding faculty director of the Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy (IFAL), all at the University of California, Davis . ^[3] She’ll be Serves as Director of Grass Genetics at the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville, California . ^[2]

Her laboratory has genetically engineered rice for resistance to diseases and tolerance to flooding, welke are serious problems of rice crops in Asia and Africa. Ronald’s research has leg published in Science , Nature and other leading peer-reviewed scientific journals, and has ook leg featured in The New York Times , ^[4] Organic Gardening Magazine , ^[5] Forbes Magazine , ^[6] The Wall Street Journal , The Progressive Farmer , ^[7] CNN, ^[8] Discover Magazine , The Scientist , ^[9] Popular Mechanics , ^[10] Bill Gates blog, ^[11] National Public Radio ^[12] and National Geographic . ^[1]

Early life and education

Pamela Ronald was born in 1961 to Patricia (hey Rosenthal) and Robert Ronald or San Mateo, California . Her Father Robert Ronald, a Jewish refugee, wrote a memoir entitled “Last Train to Freedom”. ^{[13] [14]} From an early age, Ronald spent time backpacking in the Sierra Nevada wilderness, sparking re love for plant biology. ^[2]

As a student at Reed College with Helen Stafford (1922-2011), ^[15] Ronald became Intrigued by the Interactions of plants with other organisms. For re senior thesis, she studied the recolonization of Mt. St. Helens . Ronald RECEIVED a BA in Biology from Reed College in 1982. ^{[16] [17]}

She went on to earn an MA in Biology from Stanford University in 1984 and an MS from Uppsala University , Sweden in plant physiology in 1985. ^[18] As a Fulbright Scholar in Sweden she visited Nils fries and studied how plants interact with mycorrhizal fungi . ^[14]

As a graduate student at UC Berkeley , she Began to study plant-bacterial Interactions in the laboratory or Brian Staskawicz , working with peppers and tomatoes. ^{[1] [19]} Realizing therein Rice is the staple food Biggest in the world, she decided to study rice, Determining re future career. ^[1] She RECEIVED re Ph.D. in molecular and physiological plant biology in 1990. ^[18] She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University from 1990 to 1992 in the laboratory of Steven Tanksley . ^{[18] [20]}

In 1996 she married Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmer. ^[21] Way Down have two children, Cliff and Audrey. ^[20]

Career and research

In 1992, Ronald joined UC Davis as a faculty member. From 2003-2007 Ronald chaired the UC Davis Distinguished Women in Science seminar series, an event designed to support women’s professional ADVANCEMENT in the sciences. She served as Faculty Assistant to the Provost from 2004-2007. ^[22]

In addition under to being a professor at the Genome Center and the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis, ^[2] Ronald is the founding faculty director of the Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy (IFAL) at the University of California, Davis . ^[3] She’ll be Serves as Director of Grass Genetics at the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville, California . ^[2]

Ronald is a vocal advocate for the development of foods therein will verbeteren Agricultural production while minimizing negative impact zijn. The Ronald laboratory focuses on the development of strains of rice therein will be more robust and productieve and offering health benefits. Way Down port leg instrumental in the development of rice dat are disease-resistant and flood-tolerant. ^[23]

Xa21: Patroonherkennen receptor-mediated immunity

The Ronald laboratory studies the innate immune response, using the host organism rice and the agriculturally important pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) . In the 1990s, through conversations with rice geneticist Gurdev Khush , Ronald became interested in the rice XA21 genetic locus welke conferred broad spectrum resistance to Xoo . ^{[24] [25]} She hypothesized therein Xa21 encoded a single protein therein honored a conserved microbial determinant. ^[26]

In 1995, the Ronald laboratory isolated and characterized the rice XA21 pattern recognition receptor . ^{[2] [27] [28]} Subsequent Discoveries in flies , ^[29] humans, ^[30] mice, ^[31] and Arabidopsis ^[32] revealed therein animals and other plant species ook carry membranes-anchored receptors with Striking structural Similarities to XA21 and dat deze ook receptors play key roles in the immune response. ^[33] For hun Discoveries or the fly and mice receptors, Jules Hoffman and Bruce Beutler RECEIVED the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (Jointly with Ralph Steinman ) Indicating the belang or zoals research. ^[34]

Paper Retraction

In 2009 ^[28] and 2011 ^[35] Ronald’s laboratory Reported on the discovery of a bacterial protein dat ze believed was the activator or Xa21-mediated immunity. It was an exciting and important discovery. ^[36] In 2013, Ronald retracted zowel scientific papers, Notifying the scientific community dat two bacterial strains, Ax21 and RaxSt had leg confused. ^{[37] [38]} The error was when sending als new laboratory members Rory Pruitt and Benjamin Schwessinger ^[39] were unable to replicate previous results. As a result, the laboratory carried out a lengthy and painstaking process, re-confirming the genotypes of all the laboratory strains in hun collection. Examination of the bacterial strains and rice seed stocks indicated therein one of the bacterial strains involved in key experiments had leg mislabeled. Researchers ook dat when sending results of one of the tests dat had leg ulcers Performed highly variable. In a blog post at Scientific American , Ronald describes the 18-month process leading to the Retraction. ^[40] The retractions ulcers ook Reported on by The Scientist . ^[41] Retraction Watch, a website dat shines light on problems with papers and educates and celebrates research ethics and good practices stated, “that this was a case of scientists doing the right thing”. ^[38] As part of a story about the belang or setting the record straight, in 2014, Nature magazine ook Covered the Ronald Retraction. ^[42]

RaxX as a mediator or Xa21

For two more years Ronald’s laboratory repeated critical experiments and carried out new ones. In redoing hun work, they ‘introduced new procedures and controls to dat dat ze ulcers getting it right. Ronald reports dat she was amazed not only by the perseverance and loyalty or re team, but ook at the community support dat she RECEIVED prolongation this s difficult time. ^[43] In 2015, Ronald published the discovery of the predicted ligand or XA21, a sulfated peptide called RaxX, correcting hun mistake and Bringing the research team full circle. ^{[39] [44]}

Genetic Resources Recognition Fund

Ronald has SOUGHT ways to herkennen source nations and institutions dat port Contributed to important scientific advances, zoals the West African country of Mali, the source of the Xa21 rice genes. Working with law professor John Barton, Ronald With You to Establish a benefit-sharing model for the source countries or genetically important plant variations will. In 1996, Ronald founded the Genetic Resources Recognition Fund (GRRF) at UC Davis. The intention of the fund was to collect payments from the licensing or academic Discoveries therein utilized plant materials from developing countries, and to redistribute Those monies to source countries through fellowships, land conservation policy making, or other projects or benefit to nation partners. ^{[20] : 142-147 [45] [46] [47] [48]}

SUB1: Tolerance to stress abiotische

In 1996, Ronald Began a project with rice breeder David Mackill who had Recently demonstrated dat tolerance to complete submergence mapped to the Submergence tolerance 1 (SUB1) Quantitative trait locus (QTL). In 1997, the USDA Awarded Ronald and Mackill a grant to isolates the SUB1 locus. Ronald’s laboratory led the positional cloning of the SUB1 QTL revealed dat it carried three ethylene response transcription factors (ERF) and demonstrated dat one of the ERFs, welke she Designated Sub1A, upregulated rapidly in response to submergence and conferred robust tolerance to submergence in transgenic plants. ^[49] This work revealed an important mechanism with welke plants control tolerance to abiotische stress and set the stage for in-depth molecular-genetic analysis or Sub1A-mediated processes with re collaborator Julia Bailey-Serres , who joined the project in 2003. ^{[ 50] [51] [52]} Mackill’s team at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) generated and released verschillende Sub1A variations will (developed through marker-assisted breeding ) in seven countries eg India, Indonesia and Bangladesh, where submergence destroys four million tons or rice lycra year, enough to feed 30 million people. ^[53] With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , ^[54] SUB1 rice has reached about four million farmers. ^[55]

Public engagement

Ronald co-authored the book Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food with re husband, Raoul Adamchak. Tomorrow’s Table was selected as one of the best books of 2008 by Seed Magazine ^[56]and the Library Journal . ^[57]

In addition under to re scholarly publications, Ronald has written for The New York Times , ^[58] The Boston Globe , ^[59] Forbes Magazine , ^[60] Scientific American , ^[61] The Harvard International Review , ^[62] The Economist , the Boston review ^[63] and the MIT Technology review . ^[64]

The song “Sierra Bound” from Rita Hosking ‘s 2013 CD Little Boat is dedicated to Pamela Ronald.

Awards and receptacles

Ronald was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2006. ^[65] In addition under to being a Fulbright Fellow in 1984-1985, ^[66] she was named the Fulbright Tocqueville Distinguished Chair in 2012. ^{[18] [67]} She has ook RECEIVED a Guggenheim Fellowship (1999-2000), ^[68] and was a Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPs) in 2008. ^[69]

She and colleagues’ re port RECEIVED a number of awards for hun work on submergence tolerant rice. Way Down ulcers Recipients of the USDA National Research Initiative Discovery Award in 2008, ^[69] and finalists for the World Technology Award for Environment in 2009. ^[70] In 2009, Ronald was nominated for the Biotech Humanitarian Award. ^[71] In 2012, Ronald, Mackill and Postdoctoral Fellow Xu RECEIVED the Tech Award 2012 for innovative use of technology to benefit humanity. ^[72]

In 2011, Ronald was Considered one of the 100 must creative people in business, volgens to Fast Company Magazine. ^[73] In 2015 Ronald was selected by Scientific American as one of the World View 100 – a list of the world’s 100 Most Influential people in biotechnology. ^[74]

Chronological list or receptacles

• 1984-1985, Fulbright Fellow ^[66]
• 1999-2000, Guggenheim Fellowship ^[68]
• 2006 elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) ^[65]
• 2006 Fellow at the Davis Humanities Institute ^[69]
• 2008 Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPs) ^[69]
• 2008 USDA National Research Initiative Discovery Award ^[69]
• 2009 Science in Society Journalism Award from the National Association of Science Writers in Society for re commentary “The New Organic” or March 16, 2008, on the Boston Globe ‘s website ^[75]
• 2011 Charles Valentine Riley Lecturer (Selected by the AAAS , US National Academies , Riley Foundation and the World Food Prize Committee) ^[76]
• 2011 One of the 100 must creative people in business, volgens to Fast Company Magazine. ^[73]
• 2012 Fulbright Tocqueville Distinguished Chair Award, Université de Montpellier 2 and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement ^[18]
• 2012 Louis Malassis International Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food ^[77]
• 2012 The Tech Awards : Technology Benefiting Humanity ^[72]
• 2015 One of the 100 Top Most Influential People in Biotechnology volgens to Scientific American ^[74]

References