CURRICULUM VITAE

 

RANDY D. DINKINS

Research Plant Molecular Geneticist

 

USDA-ARS Forage-Animal Production Research Unit 
N220C Agriculture Science Building North,  University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546-0091

Tel: (859) 257-4602 , Fax: (859) 257-3334. rdinkins@ars.usda.gov

 

Education:

1979 B.A. Philosophy; St. Andrews Presbyterian College, Laurinburg, NC.

1984 M.S. Agronomy; Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK.

1992 Ph.D. Botany; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

 

Research Interests: Genetic improvement of crop plants utilizing molecular biology, tissue culture and transformation approaches.  Specific interests include forage-animal interactions, plant growth and development, gene discovery, plant metabolic engineering and chloroplast biogenesis.

 

Research and Professional Experience:

 

1981-1984: Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Agronomy, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK.

1985-1986: Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, Department of Botany; Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK.

1987-1992: Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia; Canada.

1992-1994: Canadian Government Visiting Fellow; Agriculture Canada; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

1994-1995: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Agronomy; University of Kentucky.

1995- 2003: Research Specialist, Department of Agronomy, University of Kentucky.

1999-2003: Lecturer, Department of Biology, Lexington Community College campus of the University of Kentucky

2003 – 2004: Research Assistant Professor, Department of Agronomy, University of Kentucky.

2004 – Present: Research Plant Molecular Geneticist, Forage-Animal Production Research Unit, ARS-USDA, Lexington KY.

2004 – Present: Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky.

 

Publications:

 

Xu Q, Belcastro MP, Dolan SV, Dinkins RD, Dirk LMA, Clarke SG, Downie AB (2004) A second protein L-isoaspartyl (D-aspartyl) methyltransferase gene in Arabidopsis produces two transcripts whose products are targeted to the nucleus.  Plant Physiol. 136: 2652-2664.

Senthil G, Williamson B, Dinkins RD, Ramsay G (2004) An efficient transformation system for chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.).  Plant Cell Rep. 23:297-303.

Dinkins RD, Conn HM, Dirk LMA, Williams MA, Houtz RL. (2003) The Arabidopsis thaliana Peptide Deformylase 1 protein is localized to both mitochondria and chloroplasts. Plant Sci. 165 751-758.

Dinkins RD, Pflipsen C, Collins GB. (2003) Expression and deletion analysis of an Arabidopsis SUPERMAN-Like zinc finger gene. Plant Sci. 165: 33-41.

Dinkins RD, Reddy MSS, Meurer CA, Redmond CT, Collins GB (2003) Recent advances in soybean transformation. In: Focus on Biotechnology Vol 10B, Applied Genetics of Leguminosae Biotechnology (eds Jaiwal PK and Singh RP).  Kluwer Academic Publishers, Great Britain, pp. 3-21.

Reddy MSS, Dasgupta S, Rymarquis L, Collins GB, Dinkins RD. (2003) Analysis of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens pTiChry5 6b promoter. J. Plant Biochem. Biotechnol. 12: 87-91.

Reddy MSS, Dinkins RD, Collins GB. (2003) Gene silencing in transgenic soybean transformed via particle bombardment. Plant Cell Rep. 21: 676-683.

Dinkins RD, Pflipsen C, Thompson A, Collins GB. (2002) Ectopic expression of an Arabidopsis single zinc finger gene in tobacco results in dwarf plants. Plant Cell Physiol. 43: 743-750.

Dinkins RD, Keim KR, Farno L, Edwards LH. (2002) Expression of the narrow leaf gene for yield and agronomic traits in soybean. J. Heredity. 93: 346-351.

Reddy MSS, Dinkins RD, Collins GB. (2002) Overexpression of the Arabidopsis thaliana MinE1 bacterial division inhibitor homologue gene alters chloroplast size and morphology in transgenic Arabidopsis and tobacco plants. Planta  215: 167-176.

Dinkins RD, Reddy MSS, Meurer CA, Yan B, Trick HN, Finer JJ, Thibaud-Nissen F, Parrott WA, Collins GB (2001) Increased sulfur amino acids in soybean plants overexpressing the maize 15 kDa zein protein. In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. – Plant 37: 742-747.

Dinkins RD, Reddy MSS, Mei L, Collins GB (2001) Overexpression of the Arabidopsis thaliana MinD1 gene alters chloroplast number and size in tobacco. Planta  214: 180-188.

Meurer CA, Dinkins RD, Redmond CT, McAllister KP, Tucker DT, Walker DR, Parrott WA, Trick HN, Essig JS, Franz HM, Finer JJ, Collins GB (2001) Embryogenic response of multiple soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill.] cultivars across three locations. In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. – Plant  37: 62-67.

Reddy MSS, Ghabrial SA, Redmond CT, Dinkins RD, Collins GB. (2001) Resistance to Bean pod mottle virus in transgenic soybean lines expressing the capsid polyprotein. Phytopathology. 91: 831-838

Yan B, Reddy MSS, Collins GB, Dinkins RD (2000) Agrobacterium tumefaciens - mediated transformation of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] using immature zygotic cotyledon explants. Plant Cell Rep.  20:1090-1097.

Meurer CA, Dinkins RD, Collins GB (1998) Factors affecting soybean cotyledonary transformation. Plant Cell Rep. 18: 180-186.

Dinkins RD, Bandaranayede H, Baeza L, Griffiths AJF, Green BR (1997) hcf5, a nuclear photosynthetic electron transport mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana with a pleiotropic effect on chloroplast gene expression. Plant Physiol. 113: 1023-1031.

Trick HN, Dinkins RD, Santarem ER, Di R, Samoylov V, Meurer CA, Parrott WA,  Finer JJ, Collins GB. (1997) Recent advances in soybean transformation.  Plant Tiss. Cult. Biotechnol. 3: 9-26.

Dinkins RD, Bandaranayake H, Green BR, Griffiths AJF (1994) A nuclear photosynthetic electron transport mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana with altered expression of the chloroplast petA gene. Curr. Genet. 25:282-288.

Dinkins RD (1992) Isolation and characterization of high chlorophyll  fluorescence mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana. Ph. D. Thesis, University of British Columbia.

Schneider T, Dinkins RD, Robinson K, Shellhammer J, Meinke DW. (1989) An embryo-lethal mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana is a biotin auxotroph. Dev. Biol. 131:161-167.

Publications: Meeting Presentation Abstracts

 

Dinkins RD (2004) Analysis of an Arabidopsis SUPERMAN-like single zinc finger gene. Plant Biology 2004:  Lake Buena Vista, FL Abstract 316, July 24 - 28, 2004

Tavva VS, Dinkins RD, Palli SR, Collins GB (2004) Two-hybrid gene switch: A chemical inducible ecdysone receptor (EcR)-based gene regulation system for plants.  10^th Biennial Conference on the Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Soybean: Columbia MO, Abstract 85, pg. 137, August 8-11, 2004.

Tavva VS, Dinkins RD, Palli SR, Collins GB (2004) Development of a two-hybrid ecdysone receptor-based gene switch for plants.  Plant Biology 2004:  Lake Buena Vista, FL, Abstract  750, July 24 - 28, 2004.

Xu Q, Villa ST, Belcastro M, Dinkins RD, Clarke S, Downie AB (2004) Maintenance of a functional proteome.  Plant Biology 2004:  Lake Buena Vista, FL, Abstract 747, July 24 - 28, 2004.

Dinkins RD, Pflipsen C, Collins GB. (2003) Characterization of a family of Arabidopsis single C2H2 zinc finger proteins. 14^th International Meeting on Arabidopsis, Madison WI, June 20-24, 2003.

Xu Q, Belcastro M, Dinkins RD, Perry SE, Downie AB (2003) An Arabidopsis PIMT gene encodes two nuclear localized proteins. 14^th International Meeting on Arabidopsis, Madison WI, June 20-24, 2003.

Dinkins RD, Reddy MSS, Tavva VS, Collins GB (2002) Gene silencing in transgenic soybean plants transformed via particle bombardment. 9^th Biennial Conference on the Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Soybean. Urbana-Champaign IL August 11-14, 2002.

Conn HM, Dinkins RD, Dirk LMA, Williams MA, Houtz RL (2002) Subcellular localization of plant peptide deformylases. Plant Biology 2002, Denver CO August 3-7, 2002.

Tavva VS, Dinkins RD, Reddy MSS, Ghabrial S, Collins GB (2002) Resistance to Bean Pod Mottle Virus in transgenic soybean lines.  9^th Biennial Conference on the Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Soybean. Urbana-Champaign IL August 11-14, 2002.

Dinkins RD, Reddy MSS, Meurer CA, Collins GB (2000) Transformation and expression of a 15 kDa zein storage protein from maize in soybean.  International Society of Plant Molecular Biology. Quebec CA June 18-23, 2000

Reddy MSS, Dinkins RD, Collins GB (2000) Overexpression of the Arabidopsis thaliana MinD gene alters chloroplast number and size. International Society of Plant Molecular Biology. Quebec CA June 18-23, 2000.

Dinkins RD, Meurer CA, Reddy MSS, Redmond C, McAllister K, Collins GB (1998) Identification of critical components for soybean transformation.  7^th Biennial Conference on the Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Soybean. Knoxville TN July 26-29, 1998.

Dinkins RD, Hunt AJ, Collins GB (1998) Analysis of the Arabidopsis thaliana photosynthetic electron transport mutant hcf2. Gordon Conference on Plant  Molecular Biology. Henniker NH July 19-24, 1998.

Reddy MSS, Dinkins RD, Collins GB (1998) Optimization of genetic transformation of soybean by particle bombardment of embryonic axes. 7^th Biennial Conference on the Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Soybean. Knoxville TN July 26-29, 1998.

Meurer CA, Dinkins RD, Collins GB (1998) Genotypic factors affecting response to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of soybean. 7^th Biennial Conference on the Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Soybean. Knoxville TN July 26-29, 1998.

Dinkins RD, Redmond CT, Collins GB. (1996) A solid media based plant regeneration method for soybean via somatic embryogenesis. 6^th Biennial Conference on the Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Soybean. Columbia, MO, August 12-14, 1996.

Dinkins RD, Redmond CT, Collins GB. (1996) A solid media based plant regeneration method for soybean via somatic embryogenesis. American Society of Agronomy. Indianapolis, IN. November 4-7, 1996

Dinkins RD, Torisky RS, Collins GB (1995)  Establishment of a Regional Soybean Tissue Culture and Genetic Engineering Center. Congress on In Vitro Biology. Denver, CO, May 20-24, 1995. (Invited Presentation).

Dinkins RD, Wan JR, Das Gupta U, Boggess S, Hunt A, Collins GB (1995) The effect of a mammalian S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase gene on polyamines and nicotine in transgenic tobacco. 49^th Tobacco Chemist's Research Conference. Lexington, KY, September 24-27, 1995.

Dinkins RD, Seabrook JEA Tai GCC, De Jong H (1993) Reproducibility of RAPD based markers using different sources of heat stable DNA polymerases.  Third International Symposium on the Molecular Biology of the Potato.  Santa Cruz, CA, July 25-30, 1993.

Dinkins RD, Green BR, Griffiths AJF (1991) High chlorophyll fluorescence mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana. J. Cellular Biochem., Suppl. 15A, Abst. 317.

Dinkins RD, Green BR (1991) Chloroplast gene expression in nuclear, photosynthetic mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana. (ed. RB Hallick) Third International Congress of Plant Molecular Biology. Tucson Arizona, Abst. 1969. 

 

Patents (Applications in progress)

Dinkins RD, Reddy MSS, Collins GB. An efficient system for plant chloroplast transformation and gene expression.  Approved by the University of Kentucky Intellectual Properties Committee for Patent Application (in progress).

 

Synergistic Activities

 

Undergraduate Student Mentor: Mentored eight undergraduate biotechnology research projects.

Lecturer: Taught an introductory biology course for non-major; Department of Biology; Lexington Community College; 1999-2003

Academic Referee: Crop Science, In Vitro Cellular and Molecular Biology – Plant; Plant Cell Reports, Plant Science, Planta, USDA-NRI grant proposals.

Graduate Committee.  Served on one Ph. D. graduate committee.

Member Professional Societies: American Society of Plant Biologists, International Society of Plant Molecular Biologists, Crop Science Society of America, National Academy for Advancement of Science.