About

Eliot Herman is a retired Professor in the School of Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona. His research program is directed at understanding the systems biology that controls seed composition and biotechnology to create seed traits including low allergen content, animal feed, and as a protein bio-factory. His interests include plant cell biology, seed biology, plant biotechnology, food allergy, biochemistry & physiology, cell & developmental biology, genomics, bioinformatics, and systems biology. Eliot Herman holds a BA in Biology from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, obtained in 1973, followed by an MA in Biology from the same institution in 1975. He earned his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego in 1980. His postdoctoral experience includes a fellowship at the California Institute of Technology from 1980-81 and a postdoctoral associate position at the University of California, Riverside from 1981-84. He also served as an Assistant Research Biochemist at UC Riverside in 1984. His academic and research background is rooted in plant sciences, biochemistry, and systems biology, contributing to his expertise in seed biology and plant biotechnology.

Research topics

• Biology
• Astronomy
• Astrophysics
• Food science
• Physics
• Genetics
• Biochemistry
• Cell biology
• Computational biology

Selected publications

• Aspherical Shock Breakout Inferred from the First Light of Supernova 2024ggi

  Research Square · 2026-03-30

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Measurement of phospholipid lateral diffusion at high pressure by in situ magic-angle spinning NMR spectroscopy

  Communications Chemistry · 2025-02-14 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  The development of experimental methodologies that enable investigations of biochemistry at high pressure promises to yield significant advances in our understanding of life on Earth and its origins. Here, we introduce a method for studying lipid membranes at thermodynamic conditions relevant for life at deep sea hydrothermal vents. Using in situ high pressure magic-angle spinning solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), we measure changes in the fluidity of model microbial membranes at pressures up to 28 MPa. We find that the fluid-phase lateral diffusion of phospholipids at high pressure is significantly affected by the stoichiometric ratio of lipids in the membrane. Our results were facilitated by an accessible pressurization strategy that we have developed to enable routine preparation of solid state NMR rotors to pressures of 30 MPa or greater.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Process of Accumulation of Seed Proteins and the Prospects for Using Biotechnology to Improve Crops

  2024-10-15 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Seeds, as represented by the major crops of corn, wheat, soybeans as well as other legumes and cereals throughout the world, are the central agricultural commodities. The domestication of these and other a few other crops has been hypothesized to be one of the most significant developments in the origins of civilization throughout the world. Human selection of plants has optimized seeds to accumulate large quantities of proteins and for high productivity of the seed plants that bear the seeds. Modern biology has resulted in a broad understanding of the molecular and cell biology of seed constituents. New tools and perspective are available to produce directed changes in seeds using biotechnology. A large literature on this subject is available, with many excellent reviews of the process of seed development, storage protein families, and how storage proteins are assembled into storage organelles. The cutting edge of seed biology involves using this base of information to conduct further experiments to understand how seeds regulate composition. This knowledge is now being used in conjunction with biotechnology to alter seeds to improve composition, allergenicity, and the production of industrial or pharmaceutical products.

  PublisherDOI

• A shock flash breaking out of a dusty red supergiant

  Nature · 2023 · 70 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Physics
  • Astrophysics
  • Astronomy
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A complete reference genome for the soybean cv. Jack

  Plant Communications · 2023 · 17 citations

  • Biology
  • Genetics
  • Computational biology

  A complete reference genome for the soybean cv.

  PublisherDOI

• A Shock Flash Breaking Out of a Dusty Red Supergiant

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2023-11-24 · 2 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Shock breakout emission is light that arises when a shockwave, generated by core-collapse explosion of a massive star, passes through its outer envelope. Hitherto, the earliest detection of such a signal was at several hours after the explosion, though a few others had been reported. The temporal evolution of early light curves should reveal insights into the shock propagation, including explosion asymmetry and environment in the vicinity, but this has been hampered by the lack of multiwavelength observations. Here we report the instant multiband observations of a type II supernova (SN 2023ixf) in the galaxy M101 (at a distance of 6.85+/-0.15 Mpc), beginning at about 1.4 hours after the explosion. The exploding star was a red supergiant with a radius of about 440 solar radii. The light curves evolved rapidly, on timescales of 1-2 hours, and appeared unusually fainter and redder than predicted by models within the first few hours, which we attribute to an optically thick dust shell before it was disrupted by the shockwave. We infer that the breakout and perhaps the distribution of the surrounding dust were not spherically symmetric.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• RNAi and CRISPR–Cas silencing E3-RING ubiquitin ligase AIP2 enhances soybean seed protein content

  Journal of Experimental Botany · 2022 · 19 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Biology
  • Cell biology
  • Food science

  The majority of plant protein in the world's food supply is derived from soybean (Glycine max). Soybean is a key protein source for global animal feed and is incorporated into plant-based foods for people, including meat alternatives. Soybean protein content is genetically variable and is usually inversely related to seed oil content. ABI3-interacting protein 2 (AIP2) is an E3-RING ubiquitin ligase that targets the seed-specific transcription factor ABI3. Silencing both soybean AIP2 genes (AIP2a and AIP2b) by RNAi enhanced seed protein content by up to seven percentage points, with no significant decrease in seed oil content. The protein content enhancement did not alter the composition of the seed storage proteins. Inactivation of either AIP2a or AIP2b by a CRISPR-Cas9-mediated mutation increased seed protein content, and this effect was greater when both genes were inactivated. Transactivation assays in transfected soybean hypocotyl protoplasts indicated that ABI3 changes the expression of glycinin, conglycinin, 2S albumin, and oleosin genes, indicating that AIP2 depletion increased seed protein content by regulating activity of the ABI3 transcription factor protein. These results provide an example of a gene-editing prototype directed to improve global food security and protein availability in soybean that may also be applicable to other protein-source crops.

  PublisherDOI

• A swine model of soy protein–induced food allergenicity: implications in human and swine nutrition

  Animal Frontiers · 2019-06-25 · 17 citations

  articleOpen access

  There is extensive literature on the development and management of food allergy, but some basic questions such as why some proteins are allergenic while closely related proteins from other species are not allergenic, remain to be answered. This paper is not a detailed review of food allergies, but rather an overview of current knowledge regarding soy food allergies, with a focus on the pig as a model for the study of soy allergies and with additional information on how soy allergies and use of soybean-sourced feed can affect production animal agriculture.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Differential food protein‐induced inflammatory responses in swine lines selected for reactivity to soy antigens

  Allergy · 2019-03-04 · 4 citations

  letterOpen access

  Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Removal of three proteinaceous antinutrients from soybean does not mitigate soybean-induced enteritis in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar, L)

  Aquaculture · 2019-09-10 · 45 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Maarten J. Chrispeels

  39 shared

• Monica A. Schmidt

  BIO5 Institute

  37 shared

• Yasushi Okinaka

  Hiroshima University

  17 shared

• Noel T. Keen

  17 shared

• David H. Slaymaker

  16 shared

• Carol Boyd

  University of California, Riverside

  16 shared

• James J. Sims

  St. Hope Foundation

  16 shared

• Cheng Ji

  16 shared

Education

• Ph.D/Biology, Biology

  University of California, San Diego

  1980

• MA/Biology, Biological Sciences

  University of California Santa Barbara

  1975

• BA, College of Creative Studies

  University of California Santa Barbara

  1973