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Horticultural Sciences

Horticultural Sciences

Dr. Bala Rathinasabapathi

Professor and Co-Chair (Teaching)

Mailing Address:
Fifield Hall
2550 Hull Road
PO Box 110690
Gainesville, Florida 32611

Office: 2247 Fifield Hall
Phone: (352) 273-4847
E-mail: brath@ufl.edu
Google Scholar: Bala Rathinasabapathi

  • Areas of Research
    • Capsicum breeding, genetics & genomics
    • Synthetic biology approaches to biofortification
    • Horticulture and Breeding of Camellia Tea
    • Purple Sweet Potatoes and Value-added Vegetables
    • Arsenic hyperaccumulation in ferns
  • Teaching Responsibilities
    • VEC 2100 – World Herbs and Vegetables
    • VEC 3221C – Commercial Vegetable Production
    • VEC 4905 – Independent Study
    • HOS 1014 – Vegetable Gardening
    • HOS 5242 and HOS 4932 -  Genetics and Breeding of Vegetables
    • HOS 5711 – Phytochemicals in Food and Health (alternate years) 
    • BOT 6935 – Plant Biochemistry (team taught)
  • 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
  • Work Experience
    • 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, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Spain and Puerto Rico. 
  • Honors and Awards
    • AAAS Fellow, American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science (2023);  
    • Outstanding Graduate Educator, American Society of Horticultural Science (2021);  
    • University of Florida Roche Teaching Scholar (2021);  
    • NACTA Educator Award, North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (2021); 
    • Featured in Membership Corner, American Society of Plant Biologists Newsletter (2011) 
    • Elected to Gamma Sigma Delta, University of Florida (2002);  
    • Outstanding Teacher of the Year, Environ. Horticulture Club, Univ. of Florida (1997-1998);  
    • Travel award, American Society of Plant Biologists (1998);   
    • University of Saskatchewan Graduate Scholarship (1985-1990);  
    • Fellowship, India Foundation, Pune (1985);  
    • Summer fellow, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay (1984);  
    • Indian Council of Agricultural Research Junior Research Fellowship (1983-1985);  
    • National Merit Scholarship (1980-1983)  
  • Program Personnel
    • Jingwei Fu, Ph.D. (Graduated Dec 2023)
    • Caitlin Clarke Ph.D. (Graduated Dec 2023)
    • Dominick Padilla, (Ph.D. Candidate)
    • Dr. Azhar Najjar (Visiting Scientist, 2022)
    • Dr. Hugo Pinheiro (Visiting Scientist, 2021)
    • Mohamed Tahir (Visiting student, 2021)
    • Nighat Zia (Visiting student, 2021)
    • Aparna Krishnamurthy, Ph.D. (Graduated in Aug 2014)
    • Elton Goncalves, Ph.D. (Graduated in Aug 2015)
    • Newton Kilasi, Ph.D. (Graduated in  Dec 2016) 
    • Saul Sotomayor, M.S.  (Graduated Aug 2015)
    • Qingyuan Xiang, Ph.D. student 
    • David Friedman, Ph.D. student 
    • Jingwei Fu, Ph.D. student
    • Adeel  Shahid (Visiting graduate student, Spring 2018)
    • Shazia Arif (Visiting graduate student, Spring 2014) 
    • Sana Tesheen (Visiting graduate student, Summer 2014)  
    • Manal El-Zohri Ph.D. (Visiting scholar, Spring-Summer 2014)
    • Francisco De Carvalho Ph.D. (Visiting professor, Amazonia, Brazil, 2018)  
    • Maria Luiza Grigio (Visiting graduate student, 2015-16) 
    • Building Better Peppers Program (current or recent undergraduates):
      • Hailey Maurer (2022-2023)
      • Alex Butler (2023)
      • Emily Sanz (2023)
      • Yang Yue (2017-2018)
      • Yanlin Wang (2017-2018)
      • Nidhi Patel (Summer, 2018)
      • Thomas J. Roth (Summer, 2018)
      • Isabel Branstrom (Fall 2013)
      • Mackenzie DeNew (2015-18)
      • Dylan Kovach (2016-17)
      • Christopher Imler (2017)
      • Jessica Webster (2017)
      • Christine Barnes (2017)
      • Nicholas Eagel, Mitchell Clifton, Sasha Camenkar and  Briana Aguila (Summer 2013)
      • Katrina Benzrihem and Denee Salazar (Spring 2013)

Selected Publications

Authors Year Title / Description Publication
Rathinasabapathi, B., Padilla, D., Fu, J., Hayano-Kanashiro, C., Martinez, O  2024 Allele mining and genomic tools to improve Capsicums. 

In: Allele mining for genomic designing of vegetable crops, Edited by Kole, C., Behera, T.K., Kaushik, P. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group pp. 216-235.   
Clarke, C. Richter, B.S., Rathinasabapathi, B 2023 Genetic and morphological characterization of United States tea (Camellia sinensis): Insights into crop history, breeding strategies, and regional adaptability.  Frontiers in Plant Science 14: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1149682  
Xiang, Q., Rathinasabapathi, B. 2022 Differential tolerance to heat stress of young leaves compared to mature leaves of whole plants relate to differential transcriptomes involved in metabolic adaptations to stress.  AOB Plants 14(4):plac024. doi: 10.1093/aobpla/plac024 
Maquilanp, M.A.D., Padilla, D.C., Dickson, D.W., Rathinasabapathi, B  2020 Improved resistance to root-knot nematode species in an advanced inbred line of specialty pepper (Capsicum annuum). 

HortScience 55: 1105-1110.  
Goncalves E.C., Koh, J., Zhu N, Yoo M.J., Chen S, Matsuo T, Johnson J.V., Rathinasabapathi B 2016 Nitrogen starvation-induced accumulation of triacylglycerol in the green algae:  Evidence for a role for ROC40, a transcription factor involved in circadian rhythm. Plant Journal 85: 743-757.
Goncalves E.C., Wilkie A.C., Kirst M., Rathinasabapathi B  2016  Metabolic regulation of triacylglycerol accumulation in the green algae:  identification of potential targets for engineering to improve oil yield. Plant Biotechnology Journal 14: 1649-1660.
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 47: 2204-2211.
Goncalves, E.C., Johnson, J.V., Rathinasabapathi B  2013  Conversion of membrane lipid acyl groups to triacylglycerol and formation of lipid bodies upon nitrogen starvation in biofuel green algae Chlorella UTEX29. Planta 238: 895-906.
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 vittata. 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.