Ika Roostika Tambuan from the Research Institute for Food Crops in Bogor Indonesia received a $2500 study award in 2001 for her work to determine if rice with high levels of tolerance for aluminium in upland soils can be developed through screening cells and regenerating whole plants from cells showing resistance.
Kimberly M. Webb, a graduate student in plant pathology at Kansas State University, received an award to help her study the durability of genetic resistance to bacterial blight on rice, a very important disease of tropical rice. She added her award to other support to enable her to work with scientists at the International Rice Research Institute, in the Philippines.
Yuki Tokoyama, a graduate student in Agricultural Economics at Ohio State University, previously taught at Osaka University in Japan and was a research associate for Nogyo Sogo Kenkyu-sho in Tokyo. She studyied the demand for rice in Japan to help understand how Japanese consumers and the Japanese government can ensure a better balance of production and consumption of rice at a reasonable cost to farmers, government and consumers.
Supaporn Hutthanasombut, a Master's degree Student in Biotechnology at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, used her award to help understand how rice might be genetically changed to grow better in saline (salt) conditions, which exist in many rice fields. Saline conditions are caused by improper irrigation or from sea water flowing onto rice fields during storms or unusual high tides. Supaporn studied how indica rice (the kind traditionaly grown in Thailand) may be genetically transformed to better withstand saline conditions and to understand how genetic transformation might be used to increase the metabolic pathway of betaine, an enzyme produced by the rice plant to protect it from salinity.
Supaporn conducted her research under the guidance of Dr. Kanyaratt Supaibulwatana of the Department of Biotechnology in the Faculty of Science. She won the 1st Award at the Science Exibition III in 2002 at the University.
Mark Chong, a PhD student in the Department of Communication at Cornell University, studied the perceptions of leading rice farmers in the Philippines about Golden Rice, the new, genetically engineered rice that has the potential to relieve Vitamin A deficiency. By meeting leaders in rice growing communities in six provinces of Central Luzon, Mark found out what they think about Golden Rice, the risks they believe may be associated with it, where they get their information, how they view the Department of Agriculture and the International Rice Research Institute, and how they formed their impressions.
Mark earlier completed his Masters' Thesis, a similar study on Golden Rice in Thailand, reports his professor, Dr. James Shahanan. Mark was voted the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant of his Department in 2001-2002.
Ms. W. Wiratni from Indonesia is developing a model to understand the combined use of conventional inorganic fertilizer with nitrogen fixed by the microorganism Anabaena sp., which lives in rice fields. Her project is designed to collect data on biomass activity in a laboratory setting. Later she will adapt the model to conditions in rice fields in Indonesia. Eventually, the information developed could help farmers combine the use of biological, home-grown nitrogen with fertilizer from a bag, reducing cost and chemical use.
Ms. Wiratni, a PhD. Student, is conducting the work under the guidance of Professor Y. K. Yang in the Bioreaction Engineering Laboratory at West Virginia University and has received additional support from the Government of Indonesia.
Hua Hong Chang from Taiwan used his ARFUSA award to advance his research on measuring the value that rice paddies give in addition to the rice they produce. Products and services that are inherent in traditional paddy rice production in Taiwan, such as ground water recharge, landscapes of water and terraces, paddy bund biodiversity, and water management structures, are important to people, but are not bought or sold. Such services are generated and supplied "free" so it is difficult to know their value. Estimates of such "non-commodity" values of agriculture are increasingly being used in advanced countries as part of the "case" for protecting agriculture. Mr. Chang will make quantitative estimates of values for Taiwan, providing better information on the true worth of paddy rice.
Dr. Chang completed his Phd work under the guidance of Dr. Richard Boisvert at Cornell University''s Department of Applied Economics and Management. Boisvert and Chang have published two award-willing papers in Paddy and Water Environment. Chang is now a professor at National Taiwan Uiversity.
2008 Award Winners undertake research in cooperation with IRRI and others
Abha Mishra from India is a PhD student in Agriculture Systems and Engineering at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand. She has received a number of scholarships and awards for her outstanding academic work and has become very interested in the so called "System of Rice Intensification" or SRI. As she says, SRI is more known for its controversy than its science" and her research objectives were to explore "why does SRI work better than conventional rice management practices "and "what does make the significant difference in SRI yield potential"?
Her study of rice seedlings in a nursery seedbed and after
transplanting revealed that a dry seedbed is better than a wet seedbed and that
younger seedlings (12 DAS vs 24 DAS) performed better than older seedlings when
transplanted into either flooded or non-flooded soils. Her results, published in Experimental Agriculture Vol 44, 2008, showed that
many constraints associated with growing non-flooded rice can be alleviated
with younger seedlings from a dry seedbed.
Chatchawan Jantasuriyarat from Thailand is studying the rice defense response pathway to rice blast using tools of genomics at Ohio State University. After completing his studies he plans to return to a faculty position at Katsetsart University. He will use his award to visit Dr. Sureeporn Kage-ngam's laboratory at Ubon Ratchathani University, Thailand. Dr. Kage-ngam is conducting a study on evolution of genetic diversity of landraces of Thai rice along Mekong river basin using molecular marker and molecular breeding for drought tolerance using marker assisted selection for Northeast region of Thailand. He will participate in the IRRI rice genetics symposium before returning to complete his studies at Ohio State.
Hugh Murphy, 150 Kala Heights Rd., Port Townsend, WA 98368
Xueyan Wang, a Ph.D. student from China, working at the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Arkansas received a 2006 award for her work on the population biology of rice blast. Caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, blast is one of the most devastating rice diseases because M. oryzae evolves so frequently that it can escape single resistance genes in rice. Xueyan Wang’s research will analyze natural variation of likely resistance genes through DNA sequencing in different rice accessions and examine the interaction mechanisms of putative resistance genes in vitro to deduce their likely roles.
Tameka A. Bailey received support while a doctoral candidate in the Cell and Molecular Biology Program and Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Arkansas. Tameka’s work contributed to better understanding the mechanism of rice biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. In particular her research focused on “Horizontal Resistance to Rice Blast Mediated by Ethylene and Abscisic Acid Signal Interaction.” Using a combination of biochemical, genomic and transgenic approaches, she examined the role of MAP kinases in ethylene and abscisic acid signaling and to elucidate the molecular mechanism of horizontal resistance to rice pathogens.
After several years of research on rice, Tameka decided to continue postdoctoral research at the University of Nebraska Medical
Center. Because her knowledge and skills in rice molecular biology are readily transferable for studying the mechanism of
carcinogenesis, she was recently awarded with Susan G. Komen
postdoctoral fellowship for studying breast cancer.
Esra Seyran's work at the University of Arkansas aims to apply the field of proteomics to make a significant and immediate impact on rice plant disease control through the identification of proteins involved in disease resistance. Plant response to infection involves an interaction between proteins produced by plant resistance genes (resistance proteins) and proteins produced by fungal avirulence genes (elicitor proteins). She will construct four cDNA libraries from rice cultivars, which either contain or lack Pi-ta resistance genes, following inoculation with isolates that either possess or lack virulent AVR-Pita alleles. The leaf tissue from the various treatments that will be used for the cDNA library construction will permit isolation of proteins involved in different aspects of pathogenesis.
ARFUSA Grantees from previous years
Adam Famoso (2007) A Ph.D. candidate in plant breeding at Cornell University, Famoso is working with Susan McCouch with the objective of increasing tolerance to aluminum in rice. A travel-study grant allowed him to spend 3 weeks at the
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, where he was able to
interact with scientists and graduate students working on various biotic
stresses. In his words, “Interaction was
useful to both of us because we discussed what has and has not worked in our
different approaches and solutions that we have used.”In
his report on his time in the Philippines
he noted, “I am planning on trying to
secure funding for a postdoc fellowship and, if successful, conducting research
at IRRI.”
Dong Sik Yang, was a Ph.D. candidate in horticulture at the University of Georgia who was supported to work on flavor and aroma in rice and to travel to both South Korea and IRRI for discussions on methodologies and collecting seed samples. He has strong support from Dr. Stanley Kays, his major professor and Dr. David Knauft from the University of Georgia (2007)
Yuntao Dai, an M.S. candidate in plant pathology at the University of Arkansas working on rice blast, received an award to support his field work in Arkansas and to attend science meetings to present a paper and poster on his research. We received a strong letter of support from Yulin Jia, his major professor (2007).
ARFUSA Trustees 2009-2010: Alicia Perdon (Chair), Peter Hobbs (Vice-Chair), Ed Oyer (Secretary), Hugh Murphy (Treasurer), Randy Barker, Dean Chang, Jim Hill, Gurdev Khush, Neil Rutge. Bob Herdt is Executive Director and ex officio Board member.
The ARFUSA Council is a group of people with special interest in ARFUSA, including: Nyle Brady, Ron Cantrell, Ronnie Coffman*, S.K. DeDatta, Russ Freed, Wayne Freeman, Short Heinrichs, Bob Herdt*, Colin McClung* (also Trustee Emeritus), Ron Phillips, Walt Rockwood*, Carolyn Moomaw Wilhelm*. Former Trustees are designated by *.
Emily E. Helliwell, an American, is currently a PhD student in
the rice genomics lab of Dr. Yinong Yang at Pennsylvania State University.Throughout her academic career, she has
had an interest in crop genetic resistance, at both the population and
molecular level. Her award will enable her to visit IRRI in the Fall of 2009 for a short stay in the
lab of Dr. Hei Leung
to further her work to characterize the rice AC synthase gene OsACS2 in regard to its intercations with other factors of the ethylene signaling pathways.
Sanjeewanie Ginigaddara, a PhD candidates in Agricultural
Systems and Engineering in the School
of Envir.onment, Resources ad
Engineering at the Asian Institute of Technology,
Thailand,
received a 2008 award to conduct an in-depth study on determinants and
mechanisms enhancing grain yield of rice in the System of Rice Intensification
(SRI). Her award will enable her to pay the costs of field experiments on SRI. Ms. Ginigaddara, a Sri Lankan national, is studying with Prof.
S.L.Ranamukaarachchi
