The spring season has arrived, and the pandemic is hopefully behind us here in Israel. Nonetheless, it is still difficult to predict what the future holds.
Unfortunately, attendance at scientific conferences has greatly decreased in the last year, which can affect our scientific output. Thus, I ask each of you to actively participate in national and international conferences. The institute will support student participation and will partially fund registration costs for conferences. One of the great conferences that I have regularly attended for the past 20 years is the International Conference of the American Societies of Crop, Soil, and Agronomy (https://www.acsmeetings.org/). The conference is currently planned to take place in November 2021 in a hybrid format, and I recommend that each of you attend. I have no doubt that most of the research done at our institute can fit well into various sessions in this very comprehensive conference.
In recent years, there has been a decline in research proposal submissions by our institute’s researchers to the BARD Foundation (the US-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund). The BARD Foundation grants approximately $7 million per year to a large variety of research areas. In addition, the foundation distributes scholarships to postdoctoral fellows. The deadline for submission is September 2021, and now is an excellent time to look for an American colleague for submitting a winning research proposal.
Recently, members of our institute, led by Dr. Ilya Gelfand, established a new Nutrient Network (NutNet) site at the Mashash Farm. NutNet is a global research effort aimed at addressing human impacts on ecosystems and the consequent alteration of global nutrient budgets. It is a coordinated research network comprised of more than 130 sites worldwide. Establishment of a NutNet site at the Mashash Farm will add a much-needed location in the desert belt of the northern hemisphere. Due to the geographical uniqueness of the Mashash Farm, we hope it will become an important site in additional international networks. We would love to hear your ideas for integrating the Mashash Farm into other international networks for environmental measurements.
I am a postdoc in Prof. Shimon Rachimilevitch’s Plant Ecophysiology Lab. I was born in Florence (Italy) and grew up in the marvelous Chiantishire region, among vineyards and olive trees. When I was eight years old, during a trip with my family, I saw a desert for the first time, the Sahara. I was so enchanted by the silence and the majesty that ever since, I dreamed of living in one. The Negev Desert became my home in 2010.
I have a BSc in Environmental Science, an MSc in Ecology, and a PhD in Environmental Hydrology. I am interested in complex systems, particularly plant-soil-water interactions. I am currently working with plant stress indicators and plant pollutant compartmentalization in different projects, both in agricultural and natural systems.
In the Yair R&D Experimental Station, Arava, I investigate the fate of Velum Prime, a nematocide, in tomato plants cultivated in root-knot-nematode-infested soil, in collaboration with Bayer Crop Science and Netafim. I am interested in root development in infested soil and the allocation of nematocide in different parts of the plant.
Moreover, I am studying polluted desert environments and the effects of pollutants on native shrubs, in collaboration with HaMaarag and Prof. Arnon Karnieli’s Remote Sensing Laboratory. My current projects are the effects of an oil spill (Evrona Nature Reserve) and an acid spill (Ashalim River Reserve) on four native shrubs. I am investigating the stress level of the shrubs and the pollutant allocation in the soil-root-plant system. In collaboration with Dr. Timea Ignat, we are developing a new methodology to assess the pollutant stress level in plants by combining biochemical analysis and hyperspectral measurements.
Tenure and Promotion
Congratulations to Prof. Inna Khozin on her promotion to Full Professor
Congratulations to Liron Summerfield on receiving tenure
Upcoming Seminars
21/4 Elisa Korenblum,Weizmann Institute of Science
28/4 Yogesh Taparia, a Ph.D. candidate under the supervision of Prof. Inna Khozin
Projects, Prizes and Fellowships
Collaboration with Lycored LTD.
Project: Exploring the potential of the self-compatible tetraploid Hylocereus monacanthus as a source of valuable natural pigments for the food industry
Prof. (Emeritus) Yosef Mizrahi and Prof. Noemi Tel-Zur
The red pitaya produces large and attractive red-violet fruits. The peel and pulp have been used for many years to produce a red-violet colored ice cream, and to prepare light drinks, wine, yogurt, jam, preserves, and desserts. The nutritional, health, and therapeutic properties of the red pitaya may be attributed to the very high levels, in both the peel and the pulp, of secondary metabolites—the water-soluble nitrogen-containing pigments known as betalains. The BGU pitaya gene bank contains hundreds of genotypes with a red-violet peel-pulp color, but the wild-type H. monacanthus (code# 89-054) contains many more pigments than all other red-violet genotypes and is, therefore, the most suitable genotype for industrial use. However, this genotype is self-incompatible. To overcome this problem, we have duplicated the set of chromosomes to create a similar line to the original but one that is self-compatible. This autotetraploid (line D-27) can self-pollinate, allowing growers to plant single-cultivar orchards. In this work, we study the autotetraploid line for pigment production, particularly, fruit size, potential fruit yield per hectare, and the levels of pigments in the pulp and the peel. Granted by Lycored Ltd. for four years.
Collaboration with Grewponics LTD
The Microalgal Biotechnology Lab has recently signed a new contract with Growponics LTD, a company involved in the design and construction of hydroponic greenhouses, to develop organic nitrogen bio-fertilizer and bio-stimulants from different species of microalgae.
The contract is for one year with funding of 180K NIS.
Collaboration with Growers Tech Inc.
Project: Developing a platform designed to build a comprehensive database, based on results from field trials
Prof. Naftali Lazarovitch and Prof. Shimon Rachmilevitch
Growers Tech Inc. is developing a platform designed to build a comprehensive database based on results from field trials, with participating agro-professionals, academic institutions, leading agro-companies, and other data contributors. Prof. Lazarovitch and Prof. Rachmilevitch are participating in the pilot using data from The Root of the Matter project.
BGU Initiative for Innovative Nutrition and Food Research through a generous donation from the Mania Igel Foundation
Project: Sustainable production of omega-3 fatty acids by resilient and productive microalgae for aquaculture nutrition
Prof. Inna Khozin-Goldberg and Prof. Dina Zilberg
Profs. Inna Khozin-Goldberg and Dina Zilberg were granted funding for research by the BGU Initiative for Innovative Nutrition and Food Research (a donation from the Mania Igel Foundation). In their project, “Sustainable production of omega-3 fatty acids by resilient and productive microalgae for aquaculture nutrition,” they intend to utilize microalgae as a dietary substitute for fish meal and oil in aquafeeds.
Budget: 100,000 NIS for one year
Rector and Dean Awards
Jingbo Zhen, a PhD. student at Prof. Lazarovitch's lab, was chosen by the academic committee to receive the Dean's Prize for PhD Students for the 2019-2020 academic year on a competitive basis. Congratulations!
Yagle Isaac from Dr. Gelfand's Lab and Duggireddy Reddy Prasanna from Dr. Arye's Lab, MSc students, recieved excellence certificates.
Klil Noy, from Prof. Karnieli's lab has been awarded the Negev scholarship.
Kreitman's Fellowships
Dr. Achintya Kumar Dolui, Post Doc at Prof. Khozin's lab recieved the Kreitman PD fellowship for 2021.
Dr. Edwing Demangeat, Post Doc at Dr. Gelfand's lab recieved the Kreitman PD fellowship for 2022.
Dr. Micha Silver, Post Doc at Prof. Karnieli's lab, Chao Song and Kelem Gashu Alamarie from Prof. Fait's lab, recieved the Kreitman PD Short term fellowship.
Inbal Ronay started her master's degree in October 2018, under the supervision of Prof. Jhonathan Ephrath, Prof. Dan Blumberg, and Prof. Hanan Eizenberg, investigating
the potential of hyperspectral sensing for detecting physiological stress caused by weeds.
The competition between crops and weeds over resources adds complexity to the application of remote sensing methods for weed management. A basic step in addressing this complexity is trying to understand the link between spectral observation and plant
physiology as it allows better evaluation of the remote sensing capabilities for this task.
In her study, Inbal combined hyperspectral measurements with physiological measurements to examine the reflectance and photosynthetic activity of corn in response to competition with redroot pigweed. As the competition developed during her experiment,
its effect on the corn's spectral signature was detected in several spectral bands in the visible, near-infrared, and short-wavelength infrared ranges. Based on the physiological measurements, the spectral changes were attributed to physiological
changes related to water stress, such as the reduction in pigment concentration, reduction in relative water content, and decreased photosynthetic efficiency. The study demonstrated how measured spectral changes present a tight bond to crop-weed competition
dynamics.
The work was published in the journal Remote Sensing in January 2021.
Dr. Anuradha Singh, a postdoc in Dr. Vered Tzin's Lab, participated in the Plantae Presents Panel Webinar entitled Specialized Metabolites and Defense.
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