Plant Pathologist/Virologist, Plant Molecular Biologist and Plant Biotechnologist, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Dr. Di has 30 years of experience in genetically engineering plants for disease resistance and agronomic trait improvement. She has worked with many different plants including sweet basil, grape, turfgrass, wheat, barley, cranberry, Arabidopsis and tobacco. Dr. Di’s team has developed several different CRISPR-gene editing platforms to engineer plants. Dr. Di’s team has used CRISPR-editing technology and knocked-out the sweet basil genes involved in downy mildew susceptibility and produced transgene-free, downy mildew-resistant sweet basil plants.
Appointments
2017-Present Associate Research Professor, Department of Plant Biology, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2011-2017 Assistant Research Professor, Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2003-2011 Assistant Research Professor, Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
1997- 2002 Research Associate, Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
1992-1996 Postdoctoral Scholar, Dept. of Plant Pathology, and Dept. of Agronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
1986-1992 Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Plant Pathology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
1983-1985 Assistant Lecturer, Dept. of Plant Protection, South China College of Tropical Crops (SCCTC), Hainan, P. R. China
Education
Ph.D. 1992 Plant Virology, Iowa State University, Iowa (Advisor: W Allen Miller)
M.S. 1989 Plant Virology, Iowa State University, Iowa (Advisor: John Hill)
B.S. 1983 Plant Protection, South China College of Tropical Crops, Hainan, P.R. China
Patents
Di, R., M. A. Lawton and J. E. Simon. Filed on Mar. 27, 2020, Gene-edited basil plants resistant to downy mildew, PCT Patent Application No. PCT/US2021/024697.
Di, R. Jan. 26, 2017. Compositions and methods for inducing resistance to soybean cyst nematode via RNAi. WO 2017/015621 A1.
Di, R. and Tumer, N. E. June 17, 2014. Methods of treating hepatitis C virus. Patent # US8,753,642 B2.
Tumer, N.E. and R. Di. Sept. 27, 2011. Transgenic plants expressing L3 delta proteins are resistant to trichothecene fungal toxins. Patent # US8,026,410 B2.
Tumer, N. E. and R. Di. Nov. 25, 2010. Nontoxic Shiga-like toxin mutant compositions and methods. U.S. Application #60/978,280. Patent # US2010/0298238 A1.
Tumer, N. E. and R. Di. Jan. 5, 2006. Transgenic tobacco plants expressing truncated proteins L3 and pokeweed antiviral protein are resistant to trichothecene fungal toxins. Patent # US2006/0005271 A1.
Tumer, N. E., T. Leustek, R. Di, M. Lee and J. Kim. Nov. 23, 2004. Method for selecting transformed plant cells using ethionine and cystathionine gamma synthase as the selection agent and marker gene. U.S. Patent #6,821,781 B1.
Chapters in published books
Di, R. and N. E. Tumer. 2015. Pokeweed antiviral protein: Its cytotoxicity mechanism and applications in plant disease resistance. Toxins (Special Issue) 7(3):755-772; doi:10.3390/toxins7030755. B. Magun and J. D. Robertus, eds.
Ma, L., R. Gu, L. Tang, Z. Chen, R. Di and C. Long. 2015. Important poisonous plants
in Tibetan ethnomedicine. Toxins (Special Issue) 7:138-155; doi:10.3390/toxins7010138. B. Magun and J. D. Robertus, eds.
Di, R. 2007. Increasing the methional content in potato through biotechnology. pp 185-193 in Biotechnology in flavor production. D. Havkin-Frenkel, and F. Belanger, eds.
Tumer, N. E., K. Hudak, R. Di, C. Coetzer, P. Wang and O. Zoubenko. 1999. Pokeweed antiviral protein and its applications. pp 139-158 in Current topics in microbiology and immunology Vol.240. Plant biotechnology: new products and applications. J. Hammond, P. McGarvey, and V. Yusibov, eds.
Published journal articles in the past 5 years
Hong, L., Y. Ji, C. Long, E. Kennelly and R. Di. Amaryllidaceae alkaloids from Lycoris suppress amyloid -induced neurodegeneration in transgenic Caenorhabditis Elegans CL2355. 2022. Ind. Crops and Prod. 189:115798. DOI: 10.1016/j.indcrop.2022.115798.
Low, Y. C., M. A. Lawton and R. Di. 2022. Ethylene insensitive 2 (EIN2) as a Potential target gene to enhance Fusarium head blight disease resistance. Plant Sci. 322:111361. DOI: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111361.
Lv, K., X. Song, P. Zhang, W. Zhao, N. Zhang, F. Yang, H. Huang, C.-T. Ho, R. Di and H. Zhao. 2021. Effects of Siraitia grosvenorii extracts on high fat diet-Induced obese mice: a comparison with artificial sweetener aspartame. Food Sci. Human Wellness 11:865-873. DOI: 10.1016/j.fshw.2022.03.009.
Agarwal, A. R. Di and P. G. Falkowski. 2021. Light-harvesting complex gene regulation by a MYB-family transcription factor in the marine diatom, Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Photosynthesis Res. DOI:10.1007/s11120-022-00915-w
Elmore, M. T., K. H. Diehl, R. Di, J. Chen, E. L. Patterson, J. T. Brosnan, R. N. Trigiano, D. P. Tuck, S. L. Boggess and S. McDonald. 2021. Identification of two Eleusine indica (goosegrass) biotypes of cool-season turfgrass resistant to dithiopyr.
Pest Management Sci. DOI 10.1002/ps.6654.
X. Zhang, Y. C. Low, M. A. Lawton, J. E. Simon and R. Di. 2021. CRISPR-editing
of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) homoserine kinase gene for improved downy mildew disease resistance. Frontiers in Genome Editing-Genome Editing in Plants 3:629769. DOI:10.3389/fgeed.2021.629769.
Low, Y., M. A. Lawton and R. Di. 2020. Validation of barley 2OGO gene as a functional orthologue of Arabidopsis DMR6 gene in Fusarium head blight susceptibility. Sci. Reports. 10:9935. DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-67006-5.
Di, R., Y.C. Low, L. Wang and Y. Luo. 2020. Draft genome sequence of Streptomyces auteoverticillatus HN6, an antagonistic isolate against Fusarium oxysporumf. sp. cubense race 4. Microbiology Resource Announcements DOI:10.1128/MRA00210-20.
Di, R., A. Murray, J. Xiong, D. Esposito, S. Komarnytsky, T. Gianfagna and John P. Munafo Jr.. 2020. Lily steroidal glycoalkaloid promotes early inflammatory resolution in wounded human fibroblasts. J. of Ethnopharmacology 258:112766.
Xue, X., B. Chao, X. Guo, R. Di and J. Dong. 2020. The MAPK substrate MASS proteins regulate stomatal development in Arabidopsis. PLoS Genetics DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008706.
Pan, Y., H. Wu and R. Di. 2020. First report of powdery mildew caused by Microidium phyllanthis on chamber bitter (Phyllanthus urinaria L.) in China. Plant Disease DOI:10.1094/PDIS-02-20-0398-PDN.
Desai, M., R. Di and H. Fan. 2019. Application of biolayer interferometry (BLI) for studying protein-protein interactions in transcription. J. Vis. Exp. (149), e59687, DOI:10.3791/59687.
Desai, M., Wurihan W., R. Di, Fondell, J. D., Nickels, B. E., Bao, X. and Fan, H. 2018. Role for GrgA in regulation of 28-dependent transcription in the obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis. J. Bact. 200:e00298-18. DOI:10.1128/JB.00298-18.
Wu, H., Y. Pan, R. Di, Q. He, M. J. N. Rajaofera, W. Liu, F. Zheng and W. Miao. 2019. Molecular identification of the powdery mildew fungus infecting rubber trees in China. Forest Pathology DOI: 10.1111/efp.12519.
Wu, H., W. Miao, Y. Pan, R. Di, Q. He and X. Li. 2019. First report of powdery mildew caused by Erysiphe elevate on frangipani (Plumeria rubra cv. Acutifolia) in Hainan Province, China. Plant Disease DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-10-18-1870-PDN.
Wu, H., W. Miao, Y. Pan, R. Di, Q. He, W. Liu. 2019. First report of powdery mildew caused by Leveillula clavata on wild poinsettia (Euphorbia heterophylla) in China. Plant Disease DOI: 10.109/PDIS-09-18-1656-PDN.