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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Davis, California » Crops Pathology and Genetics Research » People » Cai-Zhong Jiang

Cai-Zhong Jiang

Research Plant Physiologist
Phone: (530) 752-7060
Fax: (530) 752-4554
Office:

University of California, Davis

103 Mann Lab

Davis, CA 95616

 

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Research Program:

Dr. Jiang's research project is on post-harvest biology and technology of floricultural/ ornamental crops developing sustainable post harvest systems that enhance productivity while reducing loses due to post harvest disease, longevity issues. The project will focus on 1) To understand the molecular basis of plant senescence and abscission; 2) To address how environmental factors such as water, temperature and diseases, effect on the performance of ornamental crops; and 3) To develop improved methods and technologies for harvesting, handling, pre-treating and storing floricultural crops. One of the basic research programs is the exploitation of virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) to identify which transcription and regulatory factors that control floral senescence, abscission and other important agronomic traits. This research may result in the development and commercialization of flowering plants with enhanced flower colors, improved disease, and stress tolerance and longer flower life. Such plants are of great interest to the horticulture industry and its consumers. 

Biography:

Dr. Jiang received a BS degree in Agronomy from the Guangxi Agricultural University in China. He received a MS degree and Ph.D. in Crop Sciences at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in Japan. After graduation Dr. Jiang joined the Departments of Botany and Agronomy, Iowa State University in Ames as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate where he conducted studies of regulation of photosynthesis. He then moved to UC Davis, Plant Biology where he examined DNA repair and mutagenesis in Arabidopsis. In 1997 Dr. Jiang took a job as a Senior Scientist with Mendel Biotechnology, Inc. in Hayward, California where he worked to characterize the function of plant transcription factor genes as the basis for creating novel products for agriculture. In 2003 Dr. Jiang returned to Davis in the Department of Plant Sciences to conduct studies of the mechanism of regulation of floral senescence and abscission using virus-induced gene silencing technology. He joined the USDA-ARS staff in January 2006 as a Research Plant Physiologist.