Overview
The Department of Plant and Microbial Biology consists of the Division of Plant Biology and the Division of Microbial Biology. Programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels have been designed to offer students maximum flexibility in defining their own areas of interest. In addition to departmental resources that are available in Koshland Hall, the facilities of the College of Natural Resources Biological Imaging Facility and the United States Department of Agriculture Plant Gene Expression Center are available for the programs of the department.
The Division of Plant Biology
The Division of Plant Biology program emphasizes basic research and its application to plants and promotes the design of plant biotechnologies. With an increasing awareness of environmental problems, global changes, and emerging food needs, plants are a focal point for new research initiatives and educational training programs. Understanding the biology of plants, their development, their responses to the environment, and the impact of human activities on the plant biosphere are many of the challenges that will continue to fuel the expansion of plant biology research well into the twenty-first century.
The Division of Microbial Biology
The Division of Microbial Biology was established within the department to provide a focus for microbial biology at UC Berkeley. There is a growing awareness that microbes and microbial activities are essential to maintaining a high quality of life for all eukaryotes. Moreover, understanding the microbial world is necessary if we are to comprehend the global ecosystem, evolutionary history, and diversity of life on earth. The twenty-first century will bring a new understanding of the workings of the global ecosystem and a wealth of new technologies derived from the microbial world. The new microbial biology research programs are designed to meet this challenge.
Undergraduate Programs
Genetics and Plant Biology
: BS
Microbial Biology
: BS
Graduate Programs
The department and affiliated graduate group offer the following graduate degrees:
Microbiology
: PhD
Plant Biology
: PhD
Faculty and Instructors
+ Indicates this faculty member is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award.
Faculty
Barbara Baker, Adjunct Professor. Biochemistry, genetics, signal transduction, plant and microbial biology, biolomolecular mechanisms of plant resistance to microbial disease, plant pathogen recognition, plant resistance to pathogen diseases, tobacco mosaic virus, agriculture and crops.
Research Profile
Benjamin Blackman, Assistant Professor.
Rachel B. Brem, Associate Adjunct Professor. Genetics of regulatory variation.
Research Profile
Steven Brenner, Professor. Molecular biology, computational biology, evolutionary biology, bioengineering, structural genomics, computational genomics, cellular activity, cellular functions, personal genomics.
Research Profile
Thomas D. Bruns, Professor. Microbial biology, plant biology, fungi, nucleic acid sequences, basidomycetes, ectomycorrhizal fungi communities.
Research Profile
John Coates, Professor.
Devin Coleman-Derr, Assistant Adjunct Professor. Plant, Microbiome, Environmental Stress, Drought, Sorghum.
Research Profile
+ Lewis J. Feldman, Professor. Microbial biology, plant biology.
Research Profile
Robert L. Fischer, Professor. Plant and microbial biology.
Research Profile
Jennifer C. Fletcher, Adjunct Professor. Molecular biology, genetics, gene regulation, stem cells, plant development.
Research Profile
Michael Freeling, Professor. Genetics, genomics, plants, trends in evolution.
Research Profile
N. Louise Glass, Professor. Biofuels, biotechnology, fungal genetics, fungal cell biology.
Research Profile
Britt Glaunsinger, Associate Professor. Virology, gene expression, herpesvirus.
Research Profile
Igor V. Grigoriev, Adjunct Professor. Genomics, fungi, algae, eukaryotes, computational biology, bioinformatics, genome annotation.
Research Profile
Sarah Hake, Adjunct Professor.
Frank Harmon, Associate Adjunct Professor.
Russell L. Jones, Professor. Plant and microbial biology.
Research Profile
Cheryl Kerfeld, Associate Adjunct Professor. Bacterial microcompartments, bioinformatics, photosynthesis, synthetic biology, Structural Biology, carboxysome, cyanobacteria, photoprotection.
Research Profile
Arash Komeili, Associate Professor. Microbiology, Biomineralization, bacterial organelles, Magnetic Nanoparticles.
Research Profile
Peggy G. Lemaux, Cooperative Extension Specialist.
Jennifer Lewis, Assistant Adjunct Professor. Plant-pathogen interactions, plant immunity, type III effector proteins.
Research Profile
Steven E. Lindow, Professor. Microbial ecology, microbial biology, plant biology, plant frost control, bacterial plant diseases, plant disease epidemiology.
Research Profile
Sheng Luan, Professor. Microbial biology, plant biology.
Research Profile
Sheila Mccormick, Adjunct Professor. Molecular biology, genetics, pollen, plant reproduction.
Research Profile
Anastasios Melis, Professor. Photosynthesis, Metabolic Engineering, bioenergy.
Research Profile
Krishna K. Niyogi, Professor. Genetics, plant and microbial biology, algae, photosynthesis, antioxidants.
Research Profile
Markus Pauly, Professor. Cell walls, extracellular matrix, plants, polysaccharides, carbohydrates, lignin, nucleotide sugars, analytical carbohydrate chemistry, plant genomics, enzyme biochemistry.
Research Profile
Daniel A. Portnoy, Professor. Mammalian cells, molecular and cellular basis of microbial pathogenesis, defense against infection, listeria monocytogenes, cell biology of infection, mechanisms of secretion.
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Peter Quail, Professor. Plant biology, plant and microbial biology.
Research Profile
Kathleen Ryan, Associate Professor. Bacterial cell cycle regulation, signal transduction, and regulated proteolysis.
Research Profile
Henrik Scheller, Adjunct Professor. Biofuels, polysaccharides, plant cell walls, biochemistry, plant biotechnology, glycosylation.
Research Profile
Kimberly Seed, Assistant Professor.
Kimmen Sjolander, Professor. Computational biology, algorithms, phylogenetic tree reconstruction, protein structure prediction, multiple sequence alignment, evolution, bioinformatics, hidden Markov models, metagenomics, statistical modeling, phylogenomics, emerging and neglected diseases, machine-learning, genome annotation, metagenome annotation, systems biology, functional site prediction, ortholog identification.
Research Profile
Chris Somerville, Professor. Biochemistry, biotechnology, bioenergy, cell biology, biofuels, cell walls, polysaccharides, cellulose, arabidopsis, cellulose synthase.
Research Profile
Shauna Somerville, Professor. Powdery mildew disease, cell wall integrity sensing, plant-fungal interactions, plant cell walls.
Research Profile
Chelsea Specht, Associate Professor. Molecular evolution, adaptation, plant systematics, evolution of development (evo-devo), evolution of form and function, plant morphology, comparative phylogenetics, floral developmental evolution, diversification rates.
Research Profile
Brian J. Staskawicz, Professor. Biotechnology, plant and microbial biology.
Research Profile
Zinmay Sung, Professor. Plant biology, plant and microbial biology.
Research Profile
Michiko Taga, Assistant Professor. Molecular biology, genetics, microbial biology, chemical biology, cofactors, nutrient exchange, microbial communities.
Research Profile
John Taylor, Professor. Evolution, fungi, phylogenomics, mycology, population genomics.
Research Profile
Norman Terry, Professor. Phytoremediation, Bioremediation, environmental cleanup, soil and water, plant biology, microbial biology.
Research Profile
Matthew Traxler, Assistant Professor.
John Vogel, Adjunct Professor.
Mary Wildermuth, Associate Professor.
Patricia Zambryski, Professor. Microbial biology, plant biology, plant intercellular communication via plasmodesmata, Agrobacterium, bacterial type IV secretion.
Research Profile
Daniel Zilberman, Associate Professor.
Emeritus Faculty
Bob B. Buchanan, Professor Emeritus. Biotechnology, environmental policy, plant biology, thioredoxin.
Research Profile
Andrew Jackson, Professor Emeritus.
Contact Information
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology
111 Koshland Hall
Phone: 510-642-9999
Department Chair
Krishna K. Niyogi
371A Koshland Hall
Phone: 510-643-6602
Fax: 510-642-4995
Associate Chair and Head Graduate Adviser
Pat Zambryski
Phone: 510-643-9203
Fax: 510-642-4995