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African scientists gain genetic tools to fight hunger at home

  • by Grace Fruto

A course that trains African scientists to use genetic tools to improve food production on the continent has begun its third round, with guidance and support from UC Davis.

The African Plant Breeding Academy’s third cohort is offered through the African Orphan Crops Consortium, an initiative co-founded with UC Davis. Allen Van Deynze is the AOCC’s scientific director and based in the Department of Plant Sciences.

A cattle dog scurries around sheep grazing near trees, while a man wearing jeans and a cowboy hat walks toward the sheep.

California producers: Climate change is real. We could use a little help.

  • by Trina Kleist

How can farmers and ranchers continue to grow our food while facing challenges of a changing climate, increasingly scarce water, land use pressures and rising costs? More than a decade of research is revealing important ways universities, government agencies and other support organizations can help our food producers develop resilience to these challenges and remain profitable.

Two men outdoors holding an orange banner. A bicycle stands behind.

Van Kessel cycles for cancer-free kids

  • by Trina Kleist
Tijn van Kessel had leukemia at the age of 10 and survived, but nearly two in 10 children don’t. His Uncle Chris -- founding chair of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences -- was deeply impacted by that horrifying statistic. Now, Chris van Kessel is cycling to support childhood cancer research, and he's inviting your support.
Stream flowing at the edge of a meadow and a forest with many burned trees. A young person in a hat is bent down at the edge of the streambank, arms stretched into the green grass.

Elmer’s blue eyes and tinker’s penny: Lassen’s diversity is a scientist’s playground

  • by Trina Kleist
 

For two weeks last July, UC Davis students roamed the meadows and forests of Lassen Volcanic National Park in far northeastern California. As they listened to the calls of flickers and watched for rare snowshoe hares, the students picked up wildflowers such as marsh marigold, grasses such as southern beaked sedge and edible plants such as miner’s lettuce.

A woman in a room, wearing a blue face mask. She sits at a table. In front of her is a very large book with brownish leaves on the pages.

Sad-looking Herbarium specimen yields clues to wine country blight

  • by Trina Kleist and Kara Manke
A scraggly grapevine collected in 1906 and stored at the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity Herbarium has yielded clues to when Pierce's disease arrived in California and how the bacterium that causes it has evolved since then. Scientists hope to use that information to prevent and, eventually, treat the deadly blight, which has spread to wine-growing regions around the world.
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