We are excited to share two recently published review articles highlighting emerging directions in plant signaling and structural biology. The first, led by Dr. Malathy Palayam and published in Current Opinion in Plant Biology, is titled “Beyond prediction: why experimental structural biology remains essential in plants.” The review discusses the rapidly evolving landscape of structural…
Dr. Nitzan Shabek received the UC Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching, recognizing his commitment to excellence in the classroom and undergraduate mentorship. Dr. Shabek teaches biochemistry to hundreds of students each year, helping them build a strong foundation from atoms and amino acids to protein structure, function, and enzyme kinetics. His…
New study out as a preprint to close out 2025! 🌱 In collaboration with the Walley lab, we report dynamic ASK1 proximity networks that reveal both SCF-dependent and noncanonical roles in ABA signaling and drought adaptation. Our work maps how ASK1/SKP1 protein interaction networks are rewired during stress, uncovering new layers of regulatory flexibility in…
Congratulations to the Shabek Lab, and especially to our collaborators with Katie Dehesh’s group (UC Riverside), for contributing to an exciting new study!The work, “Bimodal retrograde signaling disrupts a suppressor network and activates a key transcriptional activator to direct stress responses,” uncovers how the plastidial metabolite MEcPP orchestrates stress-responsive gene expression. By dismantling suppressors (HAT1,…
🎓✨ Hats off to Dr. Natalie Hamada, the latest Ph.D. graduate from the Shabek Lab! She delivered a fantastic exit seminar, and this milestone is a true reflection of her hard work and dedication. Congratulations on this well-deserved achievement, we’re so proud of you, Natalie! 🌟👏
From IGG PhD (in the Shabek lab) to Faculty: Angelica Guercio Begins Tenure-Track Role at UC Davis We are excited to celebrate Angelica Guercio as she officially begins her tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at UC Davis this summer. Angelica has been an outstanding colleague,…
Congratulations to the Shabek Lab, and especially to Angelica, for contributing to an exciting new collaborative study led by Caroline Gutjahr’s group (Max Planck). The work, “The GRAS protein RAM1 interacts with WRI transcription factors to regulate plant genes required for arbuscule development and function,” sheds light on key mechanisms driving symbiotic interactions in plants.…
Congratulations to the Shabek Lab especially Malathy – research with the labs of Yanran Li (UCSD), Dave Nelson (UCR) and Xiaonan Xie (Utsunomiya University, Tochigi, Japan) group now published in Science – more discoveries on Strigolactone signaling pathway: Evolution of interorganismal strigolactone biosynthesis in seed plants. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp0779
Congratulations Brian, Shabek Lab undergraduate student researcher, has been awarded the UC Davis Provost’s Undergraduate Fellowship (PUF, 2025)!
Our research on the SCF E3 ubiquitin ligase interactome in plants is now published in New Phytologist and featured as the cover of December (2024) issue!