Eduardo Blumwald

About

Eduardo Blumwald is a Distinguished Professor and Will W. Lester Endowed Chair at the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. He holds a Ph.D. from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on bioenergetics, complemented by a Master’s degree in Plant Physiology and a Bachelor’s in Soil and Water Sciences from Hebrew University. His research employs a Systems Biology approach, integrating genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and enzyme function analysis to identify genes and gene networks that mediate crop plant responses to abiotic stresses. His work emphasizes mechanisms related to ion homeostasis, source/sink relationships, and nutrient use efficiency, aiming to generate transgenic crops with enhanced stress tolerance and improved yields. Blumwald’s current projects include improving biomass production in poplar under abiotic stress conditions through integrated omics, bioinformatics, synthetic biology, and genetic engineering; studying plant water management behavior; engineering nitrogen-fixing rice; and enhancing peanut transformation and nutritional quality. He is actively involved in teaching plant science laboratory courses, plant biotechnology, and graduate core courses. His external activities include serving as Editor-in-Chief for plant science journals, participating in editorial boards, and contributing to the American Society of Plant Biologists. Blumwald has received numerous awards and honors, including being…

Research topics

• Biology
• Botany
• Agronomy
• Biochemistry
• Agroforestry
• Environmental science
• Cell biology
• Ecology

Selected publications

• Developing climate‐resilient crops: improving plant tolerance to stress combination

  The Plant Journal · 2021 · 566 citations

  Global warming and climate change are driving an alarming increase in the frequency and intensity of different abiotic stresses, such as droughts, heat waves, cold snaps, and flooding, negatively affecting crop yields and causing food shortages. Climate change is also altering the composition and behavior of different insect and pathogen populations adding to yield losses worldwide. Additional constraints to agriculture are caused by the increasing amounts of human-generated pollutants, as well…

  DOI

• Genetic modification of flavone biosynthesis in rice enhances biofilm formation of soil diazotrophic bacteria and biological nitrogen fixation

  Plant Biotechnology Journal · 2022 · 117 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Improving biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) in cereal crops is a long-sought objective; however, no successful modification of cereal crops showing increased BNF has been reported. Here, we described a novel approach in which rice plants were modified to increase the production of compounds that stimulated biofilm formation in soil diazotrophic bacteria, promoted bacterial colonization of plant tissues and improved BNF with increased grain yield at limiting soil nitrogen contents. We first used…

  PublisherDOI

• Plant synthetic biology innovations for biofuels and bioproducts

  Trends in biotechnology · 2022-10-12 · 56 citations

  review
  PublisherDOI

• Changes in ethylene and sugar metabolism regulate flavonoid composition in climacteric and non-climacteric plums during postharvest storage

  Food Chemistry Molecular Sciences · 2022-01-21 · 32 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Plums are rich in flavonoids, key contributors to fruit coloration and putative health benefits. We studied the impact of changes in ethylene and sugars in flavonoid metabolism-related pathways of the climacteric Santa Rosa and its non-climacteric mutant Sweet Miriam, throughout the postharvest period. Fruits were harvested at optimal maturity, subjected to ethylene treatments, and evaluated during storage. We examined transcript profiles of structural and regulatory genes of flavonoid-related p…

  PublisherDOI

• Silencing of <i>OsCV (chloroplast vesiculation)</i> maintained photorespiration and N assimilation in rice plants grown under elevated CO₂

  Plant Cell & Environment · 2020 · 31 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  assimilation and higher total and seed protein contents. Co-immunoprecipitation of OsCV-interacting proteins suggested that, similar to its role in chloroplast protein turnover, OsCV acted as a scaffold, binding peroxisomal proteins.

  DOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Arabidopsis NHX-like Vacuolar Antiporters: Structure and Function

  NSF · $491k · 2004–2009

• Collaborative Research: Abiotic Stress Combination: Bridging the gap between Arabidopsis Stress Research and Agriculture

  NSF · $229k · 2009–2012

Frequent coauthors

• Amir Ahkami

  29 shared

• Mohsen Hanana

  Center of Biotechnogy of Borj Cédria

  27 shared

• María del Mar Rubio Wilhelmi

  University of California, Davis

  26 shared

• Avi Sadka

  Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  24 shared

• Nir Sade

  Tel Aviv University

  23 shared

• Hiromi Tajima

  University of California, Davis

  23 shared

• Zvi Peleg

  Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  22 shared

• Elias Bassil

  21 shared

Awards & honors

• Corresponding Member, National Academy of Agriculture and Ve…
• Fellow, American Society of Plant Biologists (2014)
• REDBIO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nati…
• Loomis Distinguished Lecturer, Iowa State University (2012)
• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science…

Similar researchers at University of California, Davis

• Blake Meyersh-126
• Alan B. Bennetth-93
• Luca Comaih-83