Plants can perceive and react to light across a wide spectrum. New research from Prof. Nitzan Shabek’s laboratory in the Department of Plant Biology, College of Biological Sciences shows how plants can respond to blue light in particular.
“Plants can see much better than we can,” Shabek said.
Structure of mRNA initiation complex could give insight into cancer and other diseases
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, U.K., have solved the structure of the complex formed when mRNA is being scanned to find the starting point for translating RNA into a protein. The discovery, published Sept.
Four years after plant sciences professor Kentaro Inoue was struck and killed while riding his bike, the last three graduate students from his lab are ensuring his scientific legacy lives on through their published research, careers in industry and academia, and mentoring of future science students.
Philip Day, Laura Klasek and Lucas McKinnon successfully completed their doctoral degrees in the past year, having continued their studies with the support of plant biology professor Steven Theg, one of Inoue’s colleagues, and the Department of Plant Sciences.
In a study appearing in Cell Host & Microbe, UC Davis plant biologists highlight key proteins that allow pathogens to target and manipulate the molecular machinery responsible for a host plant's autophagy process.
In a study appearing in Nucleic Acids Research, UC Davis College of Biological Sciences researchers identify and show how two molecular partners affect the overall assembly and structure of the breast cancer protein BRCA2.
In a study appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, UC Davis researchers present a statistical method that—by virtue of providing a mathematical description of the relevant biological and technical processes associated with transcriptomic data—allows researchers to identify the expression state of genes.
Neuroscience Graduate Group student Jaleel Jefferson investigates the neuropathology of a condition known as HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorders (HAND), which encompasses “a spectrum of cognitive, motor, and/or mood problems” that affect people with HIV. In this Science Snapshot, he walks us through some neuronal imagery and shares some of his path to science.
A $1.5 million grant from the United States Department of Defense (DoD) will help UC Davis Professor Lee Miller, Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior and the Center for Mind and Brain, expand his lab’s research on hearing loss, an issue of relevance to both aging populations and military personnel.
Researchers at the College of Biological Sciences and the Joint BioEnergy Institute have developed a new set of synthetic biology tools that could unlock advanced plant engineering.
The largest study of its kind in the U.S. shows thousands of different types of bacteria living on cellphones and shoes, including groups that have barely been studied by scientists.
