Texas State researchers cited in Science, Nature journals

Date of Release: 02/08/2006

SAN MARCOS—Two Department of Biology faculty members at Texas State University-San Marcos have been recognized in the journals of Science and Nature for breakthrough research in plant development.

Assistant professor Nihal Dharmasiri, Ph.D., and lecturer Suni Dharmasiri, Ph.D., were cited in the Dec. 2005 “Breakthrough of the Year” issue of Science for their paper “The F-box protein TIR1 is an auxin receptor.” The paper, written in collaboration with Mark Estelle of Indiana University, examined the role the hormone auxin plays in plant developmental biology, and was published in Nature May of 2005.

The Science issue highlights Dharmasiri and Dharmasiri’s research as the no. 3 breakthrough of the year, along with several other papers on plant development. Other breakthroughs honored included the planetary exploration of Mars, Saturn and Saturn’s moon, Titan, at no. 2 and astrophysicists’ observations of a massive radiation flare from a neutron star near the center of the galaxy. The year’s top breakthrough went to research using field observations and genome data to advance the understanding of evolution.