SANS professors Sadanand Dhekney and Meng Xia will receive $250,000 grants through the Princeton Alliance for Collaborative Research and Innovation to fund two-year research projects co-led with peers at Princeton University. The November 1 announcement described the projects as being among the first set in motion as part of a groundbreaking alliance between Princeton University faculty and their peers at HBCUs.
The United Negro College Fund partnered with Princeton to give rise to the alliance for the purpose of “taking up some of the most difficult challenges of our day, from cybersecurity to climate change to public health and the social safety net.” The idea is to bring together researchers with diverse expertise and perspectives, leading to innovative ideas and solutions. UMES is among five HBCUs to partner with the Ivy League school.
“Powdery mildew is the most destructive fungal disease affecting wine and table grape production worldwide,” Dhekney said. “The goal of the project is to improve our understanding of the role of plant receptor proteins involved in powdery mildew infection of grapevines.”
Dhekney said genetic engineering and CRISPR-Cas9 mediated gene editing technology will be used to generate mutant grapevines with altered responses to powdery mildew infection. This will provide information on how plant and fungal genes interact during the infection process and help in the development of disease-resistant grapevines.
UMES currently has expertise in the above areas of grapevine biotechnology, he said. The grant provides for UMES researchers and students to interact with and utilize the expertise of Princeton University faculty and facilities in the areas of genomics, transcriptomics and bioinformatics.
“This will improve the quality of research and education at UMES, while the joint collaboration expands opportunities for securing additional grant funding in plant breeding and biotechnology,” he said.
Xia’s project will not only increase UMES’ research capability. It will also expand groundwater and hydrological effects on nearshore circulation, hydrodynamics, river and sediment plume dynamics, and processes of the Chesapeake Bay.
“The interaction between surface water and groundwater is an important process when looking at circulation in watersheds,” Xia said. “More often, the surface water modeling system overpredicts the inundation extent by not considering the intrusion factor. Connected aquifers have the greater salinized extent and shorter recovery time. For example, storm surge events like hurricanes Katrina and Rita witnessed a decrease in the Ca/Mg ratio and elevated chloride concentration right after the storm, which recovered after about six months.”
Xia and his research team will couple the integrated hydrology model, ParFlow, and the ocean model, FVCOM, to gain a comprehensive perspective on integrated surface water and groundwater modeling, including the intrusion mechanism essential to understanding the hydrological and biogeochemical processes of these two interconnected systems.
“These projects present a tremendous opportunity for our faculty and students to hybridize their ideas with colleagues from Princeton to address significant food security and ecosystem challenges,” said Dr. Moses T. Kairo, dean of the School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences at UMES. “I have no doubt that they will lead to the generation of new knowledge to address the significant constraint presented by powdery mildew, and to a greater understanding of the dynamics within the Chesapeake Bay which has an enormous economic and ecological footprint in the region.”
Dhekney will collaborate with Dr. Jonathan Conway, chemical and biological engineering at Princeton, on the project titled, “Dissecting Erysiphe Necator Infection Mechanisms and Vitis Host Responses to Improve Grapevine Powdery Mildew Resistance.” Xia will be working with Dr. Reed Maxwell, civil and environmental engineering at Princeton’s High Meadows Environmental Institute on “A Framework to Better Understand Coastal Flooding in the Mid-Atlantic Region: How Groundwater May Play an Unseen Role in Climate Impacts to Estuarian Systems.”
“UMES researchers are passionate about their research,” said Dr. LaKeisha Harris, UMES’ Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and the PACRI campus liaison. “Working with Princeton faculty to develop more ideas and make meaningful contributions to their respective fields is a win-win situation for both institutions.”
Gail Stephens, agricultural communications and media associate, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, 410-621-3850, gcstephens@umes.edu
Photos by Todd Dudek, agricultural communications, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, tdudek@umes.edu
