John C. Cushman: Enhancing water efficiency and bioenergy in arid plants
Title
Enhancing water efficiency and bioenergy in arid plants
Mentor
Department
Biochemistry and molecular biology
Biosketch
John C. Cushman, Ph.D., is a Foundation Professor at the University of Βι¶ΉΣ³» and director of the Biochemistry Graduate Program in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. He earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from Ursinus College, and his master’s and doctoral degrees in microbiology from Rutgers University. He was awarded a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship in plant biology and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Arizona on the induction of crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) by environmental stress. Cushman’s research is focused on plant responses to abiotic stress with an emphasis on cold, salinity, drought responses and mechanisms of desiccation tolerance. More recently, his laboratory has used engineered tissue succulence and CAM to improve the water-use efficiency, salinity, and water-deficit stress tolerance in model plant species with the long-term goal of moving these water-conserving adaptations into food, feed, and (bio)fuel crops enabling production on marginal or abandoned agricultural lands. His laboratory is also investigating the productivity and irrigation/fertilization response of highly productive CAM crops such as cactus pear (Opuntia spp.) to serve as food and feed sources and as a biofuel feedstock for semi-arid and arid regions of the world. His research is currently funded by the Βι¶ΉΣ³» Agricultural Experiment Station and the National Science Foundation. He currently serves on the editorial boards of several journals. Cushman has mentored 27 postdoctoral scholars, 35 graduate students, and more than 117 undergraduates in his laboratory.
Project overview
The PREP student would conduct research on one of the two projects listed below.
Project 1: Engineering crassulacean acid metabolism and tissue succulence
The Cushman lab has developed novel strategies for improving plant water-use efficiency through tissue succulence engineering and CAM engineering through introduction of these traits into Arabidopsis and soybean. The PREP student would conduct research into characterizing soybean plants including learning how to grow the plants under controlled environmental conditions, collecting tissue samples for transgene expression analysis, conducting anatomical measurements such as stomatal density and stomatal apertures, and collecting growth performance data such as biomass and seed production, drought and heat stress tolerance experiments, and collecting tissue for RNA-seq and metabolomics profiling studies.
Project 2: Bioenergy feedstocks for semi-arid and arid lands
Building upon interests in using CAM species for food, fodder, and bioenergy, the Cushman Lab has expanded research efforts to include cactus pear as a highly water-use efficient crop for semi-arid and arid regions of the globe. His research has focused on understanding developmental and water-deficit stress responses of cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) along with its nutritional potential as a forage and fodder. Ongoing work investigates the productivity and water-use efficiency of this highly productive CAM crop in the U.S. in response to different fertilizer inputs. The characterization of microbial consortia able to degrade cactus pear biomass is also ongoing. We collaborate with Steven Frese, Ph.D., in the Department of Nutrition to examine the effects of cactus pear pectin on the human microbiome.
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