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Dr. Argelia Lorence of Arkansas State University is recognized for rice research

Last week, five leading researchers in the state were recognized by the Arkansas Research Alliance.  The five people selected were named as ARA Fellows, and were awarded a plaque and $75,000 in research grant money, which will be dispersed over three years.  Among those recognized was Dr. Argelia Lorence from Arkansas State University.  She co-leads the Plant Imaging Consortium and leads research for the development of more resilient varieties of crops, such as rice.  Dr. Lorence is a biochemist and she tells about her research.

“One of the molecules we focus on in my lab is Vitamin C,” stated Dr. Lorence.  “We have discovered that when we boost the amount of Vitamin C, plants become tolerant to many stresses.  These stresses include drought, heat, cold, and other environmental stresses like that.  In addition, they also grow bigger and faster.  Over the last few years, we have been doing this research on plant models and now we are doing this research in rice.  We are finding most of what we found in the model plants is also true in rice.”

Dr. Lorince tells why she is interested in rice.

“Rice is a very important plant all over the world.  In terms of volume, rice is second only to wheat.  It is important in Arkansas because the state leads the nation in rice production.  We also have a competitive advantage in the state because we have the USDA Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart, Arkansas.  My laboratory collaborates with the center and it is great opportunity because of where they are located at.”

Her research in this field started in 2002 when she was working at Virginia Tech.  She says she has been working on this in Arkansas since 2005 and has had many graduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral students assisting her in this research.  She says that she is evaluating the best way to continue her research, especially now that she has the $75,000 research grant.  Additionally, she is also a lead researcher on a separate project with Arkansas and Missouri researchers.  She is the lead researcher for the Plant Imaging Consortium, a $6,000,000 project through the National Science Foundation.  She tells why plant imaging is important.

“Imaging technologies are relevant because for many of the traits that are desirable for crops, we need to have good tools to detect the plants that have the properties we want,” said Lorence.  “These technologies the Plant Imaging Consortium in supporting go beyond the capacity of the human eyes.  We have modern photographic tools that allow us to capture a lot more of the information about plant performance under certain conditions.”

She tells what she hopes will be the results of the research.

“Our intent is to learn a lot more about how these plants will respond to the stresses with the intent of using that knowledge to really develop varieties that are better suited for Arkansas and Missouri.”

Dr. Argelia Lorence is one of the Arkansas Research Alliance Fellows at Arkansas State University.  More information on Dr. Lorence can be found here.

The Arkansas Research Alliance Fellows are Dr. Trace Peterson from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Dr. Laura James from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Dr. Alexandru Biris from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Dr. Alan Mantooth from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and Dr. Argelia Lorence from Arkansas State University.

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.