| Office: | 2247 Fifield Hall |
| Phone: | 352-273-4847 |
| E-mail: | brath@ufl.edu |
| For more information, visit Dr. Saba's website. | |
Professor
Areas of Research
- Arsenic hyperaccumulation in ferns
- Metabolic engineering for stress tolerance
- Stress physiology in biofuel algae
Educational Background
- Ph.D. (1990) in Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
- M.Sc. (1985) in Genetics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India
- B.Sc. (1983) in Agriculture, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India
Teaching Responsibilities
- VEC 2100 – World Herbs and Vegetables
- VEC 3221C – Commercial Vegetable Production
- VEC 4905 – Independent Study
- HOS 104 – Vegetable Gardening
- HOS 5711 – Phytochemicals in Food and Health (alternate years)
- BOT 6935 – Plant Biochemistry (team taught)
Work and International Experiences
- Post-doctoral research at the MSU-DOE Plant Research Lab, Michigan State University, East Lansing and IRBV, University of Montreal, Montreal.
- As one of the two advisors for Gator Citrus Club, travelled to study horticultural industries in Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Spain and Puerto Rico.
Honors and Awards
- Elected to Gamma Sigma Delta, University of Florida (2002)
- Outstanding Teacher of the Year, Environ. Horticulture Club, Univ. of Florida (1997-98)
- Associate editor, BMC Microbiology and the Journal of Botany
- Member, American Society of Horticultural Science
- Member, American Society of Plant Biology
Program Personnel
- Aparna Krishnamurthy, Ph.D. student
- Elton Goncalves, Ph.D. student
- Newton Kilasi, Ph.D. student
- Building Better Peppers Program (current undergraduates):
- Katrina Benzrihem and Denee Salazar (Spring 2013)
Selected Publications
- Lessl, J.T., Ma, L.Q., Rathinasabapathi, B, Guy C (2013) A novel phytase from Pteris vittata resistant to arsenate, high temperature, and soil inactivation. Environ Sci and Technol (in press).
- Wang, X., Rathinasabapathi, B., De Oliveira, L.M., Guilherme, L.R., Ma, LQ (2012) Bacteria-mediated arsenic oxidation and reduction in the growth media of arsenic hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata. Environ. Sci. Technol. 46: 11259-11266.
- Rathinasabapathi, B. (2012) Functional genomics of drought tolerance in crops: Engineering transcriptional regulators and pathways. In: ‘Improving Crop Resistance to Abiotic Stress” Edited by N. Tuteja, A.F. Tiburcio, S. S. Gill and R. Tuteja, Wiley-Blackwell, Wiley-VCH Verlag, pp. 243-253.
- Wang, X., Ma, L.Q., Rathinasabapathi, B., Cai Y., Liu, Y.G., Zeng, G.M. (2011) Mechanisms of efficient arsenite uptake by arsenic-hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata. Environmental Science and Technology 45:9719-9725.
- Ghosh, P., Rathinasabapathi, B., and Ma, L.Q. (2011) Arsenic-resistant bacteria enhanced arsenic solubilization and promoted the growth of arsenic hyperaccumulator Pteris vittataL. Bioresource Technology 102:8756-8761.
- Sundaram, S., Rathinasabapathi B (2010) Transgenic expression of fern Pteris vittata glutaredoxin PvGrx5 in Arabidopsis thaliana increases plant tolerance to high temperature stress and reduces oxidative damage to proteins. Planta 231: 361-369.
