CV for Daryl R. Pring

USDA-ARS, Courtesy Professor (100% Research)
Education:

  • North Dakota State University, Fargo, B.S., 1964; M.S., 1966; Ph.D., 1968.

Employment:

  • Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1968-1971
  • Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-ARS, Adjunct Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, 1971-.
  • Sabbatical leave, Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge, England, 1981.
  • Sabbatical leave, Institute for Gene Biology Research, Berlin, Germany, 1992.

Responsibilities:

  • Research: Cytoplasmic male sterility of maize and sorghum.
  • Teaching: PLP 6932, Plant Pathology Seminar, PLP 6921 Plant Pathology Colloquium, PCB 7922, Journal Colloquy.

Major Accomplishments:

  • With a collaborator, we were first to demonstrate the efficacy of restriction endonucleases in analyzing and distinguishing higher plant mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNA), i.e., T cytoplasm maize, first to distinguish higher plant chloroplast DNAs within a species, and first to identify plasmid-like mtDNAs of higher plants. In my laboratory we were first to distinguish mt and chloroplast DNAs of sorghum, allowing unambiguous identification of cytoplasmic diversity among male-sterile cytoplasms. Our efforts resulted in the first identification of a gene protein product conditioning disease reaction in higher plants, maize T cytoplasm TURF13. Additionally, we provided the first compelling evidence that the T-urf13 gene is causal to disease susceptibility, through the demonstration that the gene and the gene product are deleted or truncated by a frameshift mutation in disease resistant and male-fertile mutants.

Honors and Awards:

  • Outstanding Scientist of the Year, USDA-ARS, 1986.

Selected Professional Activities:

  • University of Florida: Chairman, Recombinant DNA, Molecular/Cellular Biology Faculty Planning Committee, IFAS, 1982, 1983.
  • Scientific Board, Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research, 1987-1989.
  • Search and Screen Committee, Director, Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research, 1988.
  • Search and Screen Committee, Vice President for Agriculture, IFAS, 1988.
  • Search and Screen Committee, Lyle C. Dickman Endowed Chair, Department of Horticultural Sciences, 1991, 1993.
  • President, Southern Regional Project S-179, Cellular and Molecular Genetics for Crop Improvement, 1985.
  • Co-Editor, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 1991-2000.

Selected Consultations:

  • Planning Group Panel, Genetics of Physiological Traits, Board on Agriculture and Renewable Resources, National Academy of Science, 1979.
  • Panel member, USDA-CSRS Review Team, Department of Plant Breeding and Biometry, Cornell University, 1983.
  • Participant, workshop on cytoplasmic male sterility of maize, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Johnstown, IA, 1984.
  • Genetic Mechanisms Panel, 1984, 1985; Biotechnology Panel, 1985, Competitive Grants Program, USDA.
  • Section Organizer, Mitochondrial Molecular Biology, International Society of Plant Molecular Biology Symposium, Savannah, GA, 1985.
  • Consultant, Columbine Venture Fund, Denver, Colorado, 1985.
  • Co-organizer, "International Workshop on Higher Plant Mitochondrial DNA", Airlie, VA, 1986.
  • Chairman, Plant Molecular Biology section, BARD-USDA panel, 1988.
  • Panel Member, USDA-NSF-DOE Plant Sciences Center Program, 1988, site visitor, 1988, 1991.
  • Science and Technology Coordinating Committee, USDA Plant genome mapping project, October, 1989.
  • Co-organizer, Florida Winter Organelle Meeting, Clearwater, 1990.
  • Energy Biosciences Panel, DOE, 1991. Review team, Department of Botany and Microbiology, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 1995.

International Programs:

  • Collaborator with D. M. Lonsdale, Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge, England, 1982-1990, funded by NATO and NSF.

Grants and Contracts:

  • Since 1978 has received over $1.1 million from federal and corporate sources.
  • Over $860,000 through competitive, peer reviewed grants from NSF, NATO, DOE, and USDA-National Research Initiative Program, including an NSF Instrumentation Grant to UF for $261,1 68.

Graduate Students Trained:

Past: 6
Current: 0
Career Total: 6

Research Associates:

Past: 15
Current: 0
Career Total: 15

Career Publications:

  • Since 1966:
    • 0 books
    • 22 book chapters
    • 73 refereed publications
    • 0 patents
    • 89 nonrefereed papers, abstracts, and popular articles

Selected Publications in the Last Five Years:

Book Chapters:

  • Pring, D. R., Tang, H. V., and Schertz, K. F. 1995. Cytoplasmic male sterility and organelle DNAs of sorghum. pp. 461-495 In: The Molecular Biology of Plant Mitochondria, C. S. Levings, III, and I. K. Vasil, eds. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
  • Kempken, F., and Pring, D. R. 1999. Male sterility in higher plants: fundamentals and applications. Prog. in Bot. 60:139-166.

 

Refereed Research Publications:

  • Pring, D. R., and Tang, H. V. 2001. Mitochondrial atp6 transcript editing during microgametogenesis in male-sterile sorghum. Curr. Gen. 39:371-376.
  • Datta, R., Chourey, P. S., Pring, D. R., and Tang, H. V. 2001.
    Gene-expression analysis of sucrose-starch metabolism during pollen maturation in cytoplasmic male-sterile and fertile lines of sorghum. Sexual Plant Reproduction 14:127-134.
  • Wen, Y., Tang, H. V., Chen, W., Chang, R., Pring, D. R., Klein, P. E., Childs, K. L., and R. R. Klein. 2002. Development and mapping of AFLP markers linked to the sorghum fertility restorer Gene rf4. Theor. Appl.
    Genet. 104:577-585.
  • Wise, R. P., and Pring, D. R. 2002. Nuclear-mediated mitochondrial gene regulation and male fertility: light at the end of the tunnel? Proc. Natl.
    Acad. Sci. 99:10240-10242.
  • Tang, H. V., and Pring, D. R. 2003. Conversion of Fertility Restoration of the Sorghum IS1112C (A3) Male-Sterile Cytoplasm From Two Genes to One Gene.
    Crop Science 43:1747-1753.
  • Pring, D. R., and Tang, H. V. 2004. Transcript profiling of male-fertile and male-sterile sorghum indicates extensive alterations in gene expression during microgametogenesis. Sexual Plant Reproduction 16:289-297.
  • Stockmeyer, K., Pring, D. R., and Kempken, F. 2005. Nuclear localized CMS-associated ORF107 of mitochondrial origin is imported into mitochondria without a target signal. Endocytobiosis Cell Res. 16:1-8.
  • Kladnik, A., Chourey, P. S., Pring, D. R., and Dermastia, M. 2006.
    Development of the endosperm of Sorghum bicolor during the endoreduplication-associated growth phase. Journal of Cereal Science 43:209-215.
  • Pring, D. R., Tang, H. V., Chase, C. D., and Siripant, M. 2006. Microspore gene expression associated with cytoplasmic male sterility and fertility restoration in sorghum. Sexual Plant Reproduction 19:25-35.
  • Kuhlman, L. C., Pring, D. R., Rooney, W. L., and Tang, H. V. 2006. Allelic frequency at the Rf3 and Rf4 loci and the genetics of A3 cytoplasmic fertility restoration in converted sorghum lines. Crop Science 46:1576-1580.