Dorith Rotenberg

About

Dorith Rotenberg is a Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in Plant Pathology at North Carolina State University, recognized as a University Faculty Scholar. Her research focuses on diminishing plant virus disease epidemics by generating and mining new knowledge from insect vector and virus genomes to develop specific and durable 'green biotechnological' strategies for crop disease management. Her projects primarily investigate tomato-thrips-orthotospoviruses and maize-aphids-cereal viruses, aiming to understand how vector insects respond to plant virus infection, identify novel anti-insect and anti-viral strategies, and inform virus disease management decisions to secure the food supply. Her expertise encompasses the ecology and molecular biology of plant virus-insect vector interactions. She has contributed to advancing knowledge in this field through various research initiatives, including developing genome editing tools for thrips, studying virus-vector interactions, and assessing risks associated with viral vectors. Her work is supported by multiple grants, notably from USDA-NIFA, focusing on sustainable pest control, virus transmission, and emerging plant diseases, with an emphasis on developing innovative, biologically-based management strategies to improve crop health and agricultural productivity.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Evolutionary biology
• Botany
• Ecology
• Computational biology
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Biological system
• Embedded system

Selected publications

• Gene content evolution in the arthropods

  Genome biology · 2020 · 254 citations

  BACKGROUND: Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem. Their diversity stems in part from variations on a conserved body plan, resulting from and recorded in adaptive changes in the genome. Dissection of the genomic record of sequence change enables broad questions regarding genome evolution to be addressed, even across hyper-diverse taxa within arthropods. RESULTS: Using 76 whole genome sequences representing 21 orders spanni…

  DOI

• Abaxial leaf surface-mounted multimodal wearable sensor for continuous plant physiology monitoring

  Science Advances · 2023 · 171 citations

  Wearable plant sensors hold tremendous potential for smart agriculture. We report a lower leaf surface-attached multimodal wearable sensor for continuous monitoring of plant physiology by tracking both biochemical and biophysical signals of the plant and its microenvironment. Sensors for detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs), temperature, and humidity are integrated into a single platform. The abaxial leaf attachment position is selected on the basis of the stomata density to improve the s…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Genome-enabled insights into the biology of thrips as crop pests

  BMC Biology · 2020 · 98 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: The western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), is a globally invasive pest and plant virus vector on a wide array of food, fiber, and ornamental crops. The underlying genetic mechanisms of the processes governing thrips pest and vector biology, feeding behaviors, ecology, and insecticide resistance are largely unknown. To address this gap, we present the F. occidentalis draft genome assembly and official gene set. RESULTS: We report on the first genome sequence for…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Integration of transcriptomics and network analysis reveals co-expressed genes in Frankliniella occidentalis larval guts that respond to tomato spotted wilt virus infection

  BMC Genomics · 2021-11-10 · 25 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  BACKGROUND: The gut is the first barrier to infection by viruses that are internally borne and transmitted persistently by arthropod vectors to plant and animal hosts. Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), a plant-pathogenic virus, is transmitted exclusively by thrips vectors in a circulative-propagative manner. Frankliniella occidentalis (western flower thrips), the principal thrips vector of TSWV, is transmission-competent only if the virus is acquired by young larvae. To begin to understand the l…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• First Report of Resistance-Breaking Variants of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV) Infecting Tomatoes with the <i>Sw-5</i> Resistance Gene in North Carolina

  Plant Disease · 2023-01-11 · 22 citations

  articleSenior author

  , the western flower thrips. Symptomatic leaf tissue obtained from these inoculation assays tested positive for TSWV by DAS-ELISA (AgDia, Elkhart, IN) and RT-PCR with NSm primers, providing definitive evidence of the occurrence of RB-TSWV at both farms, and subsequent sequencing confirmed the C118Y and D122G substitutions. This report warrants further investigation of the putative origins, prevalence and epidemiological implications of RB-TSWV variants in NC tomato production, and the developmen…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Anna E. Whitfield

  North Carolina State University

  52 shared

• Shwetha C. Murali

  Vellore Institute of Technology University

  25 shared

• Stephen Richards

  Humana (United States)

  23 shared

• Daniel Hughes

  23 shared

• Jiaxin Qu

  East China University of Science and Technology

  22 shared

• Shannon Dugan

  Baylor College of Medicine

  22 shared

• Donna M. Muzny

  22 shared

• Kim C. Worley

  Baylor College of Medicine

  22 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Entomology

  University of California, Berkeley

  1992

• M.S., Entomology

  University of California, Berkeley

  1987

• B.S., Entomology

  University of California, Berkeley

  1985

Awards & honors

• University Faculty Scholar

Similar researchers at North Carolina State University

• Coby Schalh-60
• Peter Balint-Kurtih-60
• Ignazio Carboneh-51