Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar Recognized with Faculty Research Award
Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar, a professor of plant biology and interim chair of the Department of Plant Biology at the University of California, Davis, has received the College of Biological Sciences 2015-2016 Faculty Research Award. Based on colleague nominations, this award is presented annually to acknowledge a single research publication that reflects the exciting, innovative and significant advances in research within the College of Biological Sciences.
Dinesh-Kumar was recognized for his groundbreaking research in plant immunity and the role of chloroplast stromules in programmed cell death. His work was featured in the July 2015 edition of Developmental Cell, a leading academic journal on cell biology.
Through Dinesh-Kumar’s collaboration with Jeffrey Caplan’s team at the University of Delaware, this group of scientists amassed evidence that demonstrates stromules aid in the transportation of messages to the cell’s nucleus during plant immune responses. Stromules are microscopic pockets filled with thick fluid. Although this fluid (stroma) is usually located within the chloroplasts, during immune responses it is packed into a fibrous pocket known as a stromule and sent into the cytosol and nucleus of the cell.