As one of the largest academic departments at UCR, the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences participates in two bachelor's degree programs and offers a master's degree program in Plant Biology with two tracks, Botany or Plant Science, and Ph.D. programs in Plant Biology and Plant Genetics. The department has strong programs in basic plant cell biology, responses of plant to environmental stresses, plant ecology, genetics, genomics, and evolution. The department houses the Center for Plant Cell Biology, which is the Nation's first Research Center devoted exclusively to Plant Cell Biology. These strengths in basic research complement applied research programs that use the traditional tools of botany and the new technologies of genomics to meet the evolving needs of California's $27 billion agricultural industry in addressing new pest and disease challenges and developing new varieties and crop management strategies. Cooperative Extension specialists serve as the bridges between discoveries made in the department's laboratories and greenhouses and growers who will put the new knowledge to work for such commodities as avocado, citrus, wheat, vegetable crops, turfgrass, and ornamental and urban landscape plants.
The Department of Botany and Plant Sciences traces its lineage to 1907 when the University of California developed the Citrus Experiment Station in Riverside. Plant scientists played a key role in the success of the Citrus Experiment Station. Scientists in the 1940s identified a tristeza-resistant rootstock to solve a disease problem that threatened to wipe out the state's citrus industry. The grapefruit varieties Oroblanco and Melogold - as well as the recently released Gold Nugget, a sweet, seedless mandarin - are among the many citrus varieties bred by plant scientists at UCR.
The department is fittingly headquartered in Batchelor Hall, named for Leon D. Batchelor, the fourth and longest-serving director of the Citrus Experiment Station who spearheaded the effort to develop better rootstocks and varieties to combat diseases and improve fruit quality.
Research Assets
- Botanic Gardens
- UCR Herbarium
- Plant Growth Facilities
- Plant Transformation Facility
- Citrus Variety Collection
Instrumentation Facilities
Several instrumentation facilities are housed in a state-of-the-art, 10,000 square-foot shared-use building. These facilities provide instrumentation suites in microscopy and imaging, bioinformatics, proteomics, and DNA sequencing and molecular biology. The newly renovated facillity (completed in 2002) is located in the Noel Keen Hall (search campus map for Keen, Noel Hall.) The Microscopy/Imaging, Bioinformatics and Proteomics Cores are directed by Academic Coordinators in the Center for Plant Cell Biology. The Core Instrumentation Facility, which provides DNA Sequencing Core and other molecular biology services, is managed by an Academic Coordinator in the Institute for Integrative Genome Biology.
Additional facilities include the Central Facility for Advanced Microscopy and Microanalysis (CFAMM) and the Analytical Chemistry Instrumentation Facility (ACIF).
