Hilgard631 Wine Sales Will Benefit Student Scholarship 

By Emily C. Dooley 

For the first time in its storied history, the University of California, Davis, is selling wines to the public made by students, staff and faculty from grapes they grow in the Napa Valley and around campus in Yolo County.

Hilgard631 has been in the works for more than 10 years and was made possible by a 2021 state law that allows the transfer of as much as 20,000 gallons of Department of Viticulture and Enology wines to a nonprofit that will handle public sales. With this release, the department bottled roughly 500 gallons of wine to sell.

Money from the sales will support student scholarships. By using the grapes and wines produced through teaching, the department is enhancing sustainability. Prior to these sales, wines made by students, including in a 10-week winemaking course, had to be discarded.

“These wines represent our students, their knowledge, creativity and learning,” said Ben Montpetit, chair of the Department of Viticulture and Enology. “From vine to bottle, our students are involved in every step.”

The wine label name pays homage to Eugene Hilgard, founding director of the university’s Agricultural Experiment Station, and 631, which is the address of the Teaching and Research Winery on campus.

The wines sold under Hilgard631 include a 2020 cabernet sauvignon and 2024 sauvignon blanc made from grapes at Oakville Station, a research and teaching vineyard in the heart of Napa County.

Twelve other wines made by students in the product development class, known as VEN 127L, also will be for sale, including albariño, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and petite sirah.

VEN 127L has traditionally been focused on blending, wine stabilization, bottling and the design of labels, and this launch broadens the class to include the consideration of selling, said Professor David Block, who created the course in 2017 when he was chair of the department.

“The wines are made by students who are still learning and getting to try out things they may not have done before,” Block said. “It’s a new aspect of the program. It’s more sustainable than pouring it down the drain.”

In VEN 127L, student winemakers are divided into three groups and charged with developing a red and white wine. Each group also gets help from a professional consultant and department alum who offers advice throughout the class.

“It’s absolutely fascinating,” said Leticia Chacón-Rodríguez, the winemaker and winery manager. “The students get to connect everything that they learn — all the chemistry, regulations, marketing and blending. The blending piece is where you really put your senses into play.”

Students also design their own labels. Master’s student Bainian Chen designed the Oakville Station labels, which are a mix of vibrant colors and some familiar campus sights such as the water tower and a bike.

“I usually love my pictures to be very colorful, full of imagination,” said Chen, who is known to give artwork to friends and professors. “I wanted to leave something for the viticulture and enology department.”

The student winemakers also helped label and bottle the wines, working a commercial mobile bottling line in a trailer behind the winery.

“To see it being bottled is coming full circle for all of us,” master’s student Megan Hill said.

Block feels the same way. “I want to buy the first bottle of wine,” he said.

Wines will range in price from $30 to $40 per bottle for student labels and from $50 to $125 per bottle for the Oakville wines. The winery is bonded and meets federal regulations for commercial wine sales. More information can be found at the Hilgard631 website.

Ski with a scientist?

Yes! That’s what occurred when community ecologist (and veteran skier) Rachel Vannette, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, led a program on “Bees in Winter Survival Mode” in a Ski with a Scientist scientific event hosted by the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC).

The attendees–all on skis or snowboards–learned “where bees go in the winter” and “how they survive” during the 90-minute afternoon program, held recently at the Palisades Alpine Meadows,  located at Alpine Meadows, Calif., on the north shore of Lake Tahoe.

The event, with limited enrollment and a waiting list, drew the maximum 15 attendees, plus several TERC educators and mountain hosts from Palisades Tahoe Alpine Ski Resort.

“I talked about the different strategies that bees use to survive the winter, contrasting honey bees, bumble bees and solitary bees,” said Vannette, a TERC research affiliate. She discussed how young digger bees (genus  Anthophora), which overwinter in brood cells in underground burrows or tree holes, are susceptible to mold and fungi. “Fungal pathogens are a main source of mortality for many bee species,” Vannette told the attendees. “In some populations, that’s responsible for over 70 percent of young bee deaths.”

TERC educators also shared information on the geology of the region, reforestation in the Tahoe basin following fire, and how the snowpack season is changing.

The attendees, all in ski attire, including googles, maintained their balance with ski poles planted firmly in the snow, as they gathered around the professor to learn about bumble bees (genus Bombus) and digger bees. They skiied or snowboarded with the professor to multiple locations.

It was Vannette’s first Ski with a Scientist event, which is patterned after “Ski with a Ranger,” a free conservation program hosted by the Heavenly Mountain Resort and the USDA Forest Service.

Skiing was no challenge for the UC Davis professor. “My parents put me on skis before I turned 2.”

Ski with a Scientist takes place every Friday at 1 p.m. through March 28 at the Palisades Tahoe Alpine Ski Resort.   Like Ski with a Ranger, it is free and family friendly.

Vannette, an international leader in microbial ecology, studies interactions between plants, insects and microbes, focusing her research on the chemical and microbial ecology of plant-pollinator interactions and how microbes influence plant defense and resistance against insect pests. A member of the UC Davis Entomology and Nematology Department  since 2015, she  was named a five-year Chancellor’s Fellow in 2023 and a Hellman Fellow in 2018. She holds a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology (2011) from the University of Michigan.

The Vannette lab is a team of entomologists, microbiologists, chemical ecologists, and community ecologists trying to understand how microbial communities affect plants and insects.

“Much of the work in my lab focuses on how microorganisms affect plant defense against herbivores and plant attraction to pollinators,” Vannette related. “For example, we are interested in understanding the microbial drivers of soil health, which can influence plant attractiveness to herbivores and the plant’s ability to tolerate or defend against damage by herbivores. In addition, we are working to examine how microorganisms modify flower attractiveness to pollinators. This may have relevance in agricultural systems to improve plant and pollinator health.”

TERC, dedicated to interdisciplinary research and education, seeks to “advance the knowledge of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and their interactions within natural and developed Earth systems, and to communicate science-informed solutions worldwide,” according to its website.

Its vision is three-fold:

1. To achieve healthy aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems through scientific understanding and education for the benefit of communities locally and globally.
2. To guide the preservation of a resilient and sustainable ecosystem at Lake Tahoe for generations to come.
3. To provide objective scientific knowledge to the public, school children, private industry, government agencies, and elected officials.

Reporter Eli Ramos of the Tahoe Daily Tribune covered Vannette’s talk on bees and published the piece, titled “Tahoe’s Bees May Use Fermentation and Bacteria to Survive the Winter,” in the March 4th issue.

Community ecologist Rachel Vannette, professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, talks bees and skis.

UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Soares Leal soared from a self-described “rough childhood” in his native Brazil to become an internationally recognized scientist celebrated for his research on chemical communication and olfaction in insects.

But in his early childhood, he disliked insects, especially the cockroaches that crawled into his mouth while he was sleeping, and mosquitoes that bit him when he was and wasn’t.

So related Marlin Rice when he chronicled the life of “living legend” Walter Leal in the winter issue of American Entomologist, published by the Entomological Society of America (ESA). Rice, an ESA past president who writes the interview-style Legends column, earlier spotlighted UC Davis entomologists Bruce Hammock, Frank Zalom and Robert E. Page Jr.

The Leal piece, titled “Walter Soares Leal: For the Love of Teaching,” zeroes in on his career accomplishments in Brazil, Japan and the United States, all of which led to his election to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in April of 2024.

Rice interviewed Leal last August in Kyoto at the International Congress of Entomology (ICE 2024), where Leal was chairing the International Congresses of Entomology Council and serving as a volunteer “citizen of the world” ambassador. Leal speaks Portuguese, Japanese and English.

Leal, who joined the UC Davis entomology faculty in 2000, advancing to professor and chair of the department, has served as professor of biochemistry with the Department      of Molecular and Cellular Biology, College of Biological Sciences, since 2013.

Highly honored by his peers, Leal is the only UC Davis faculty member to receive all three of the Academic Senate’s major honors: the 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching, the 2022 Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award, and the 2024 Faculty Distinguished Research Award. His teaching honors also include the 2020 Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Pacific Branch of ESA.

“Walter is the elevator bunny on high, a full-time teacher, a full-time scientist, and he is engaged in multiple projects that make the university community a better place, all at the same time,” commented UC Davis distinguished professor and longtime NAS member Bruce Hammock, in a 2024 UC Davis news story announcing Leal’s election to NAS.

Leal holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil; a master’s degree in agricultural chemistry from Mie University, Japan; and a doctorate in applied biochemistry from the University of Tsukuba, Japan. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in entomology and chemical ecology at the National Institute of Sericultural and Entomological Science, Japan.

Walter, the youngest of five siblings, related that his father was a baker and pastor, and his mother, a seamstress. “My dad passed when I was twelve,” Leal said. “It was a hard      time in my life. He got sick when I was six and could not do too much…Basically, my mother ran the whole family without any income. But it’s part of my life.”

Neither parent received a high school education, but it was his widowed mother who encouraged him to attend college. “She knew that technical school was not for me…She never went to high school, but she had a vision. Some people have little education, but that doesn’t mean they have no vision.”

In high school, Walter began earning money–and prestige–as a radio-broadcast journalist, covering soccer and other sports. He went on to cover the USA Open Cup in the          United States.

Rice began his Legends piece with: “When Walter Leal was offered a scholarship to leave his native Brazil and begin graduate education in Japan, he was required to become proficient in both Japanese and English–two languages he had never spoken–within six months. He accomplished this challenge, eventually earning both his master’s and Ph.D. degrees. He was then offered a research scientist position with the National Institute of Sericultural and Entomological Science in Tsukuba, Japan, eventually becoming head of the Laboratory of Chemical Prospecting for six years. Leal was the first foreigner to be granted tenure at that institution.”

Leal’s research accomplishments, Rice wrote, include “the identification of the first receptor in mosquitoes for the insect repellent DEET; the first isolation, cloning, and expression of pheromone-degrading enzymes in moths; and the identification and synthesis of complex pheromones from many insect species, including scarab beetles, true bugs, longhorned beetles, citrus leaf miner, navel orangeworm, citrus fruit borer, and many others. Synthetic sex pheromones for some of these pests are now being deployed via mating disruption in projects that have saved producers in Brazil and California hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Among Leal’s scores of accomplishments: he co-chaired the 2016 International Congress of Entomology in Orlando, Fla., a conference that drew 6,682 registrants from 102        countries. He is a Fellow of ESA (2009), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005), Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2019),        and a trustee of the Royal Entomological Society (2024).

As a teacher, Leal seeks to inspire his students. “There was a particular student that came to me at the end of the course, and he says, ‘I was always not motivated in college, but when I saw you so inspired, then I catch up, and I study so hard now.’ That is why I say teaching is the big payoff, better than the paycheck, you know? That you motivate people.”

The Legends’ article includes an image of Leal sharing a laugh with noted chemical ecologist Murray Blum (1929-2015) of the University of Georgia, recipient of an ESA outstanding award in 1978, and the International Society of Chemical Ecology (ISCE) medal in 1989. Blum’s daughter, Deborah Blum, is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist (formerly with the Sacramento Bee ), an author, and the director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“The image is from the ISCE meeting in Prague,” Leal recalled. “Murray said that he wished to speak as fast as I do, but he had to pronounce all the words, including verbs and prepositions, so he couldn’t. I rebutted that I don’t speak ‘fast.’ He heard that as ‘slowly.’ We all had a good laugh. Murray always had praise for my work and encouraging words when I was at the beginning of my research career.”

And about his dislike of insects in his early childhood? “I didn’t like insects—the cockroaches and mosquitoes,” Leal told Rice. “Once, a cockroach walked on my lips when I was sleeping. What’s with that? A kid who wakes up in the middle of the night with a cockroach in his mouth? Anyway, this was a bad entomology interaction in the beginning.”

That “bad entomology interaction” is now a distant memory.

The UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) is gearing up for the holiday season with items to “bug” you.

EGSA members design and sell insect- and arachnid-themed T-shirts and hoodies, as well as stickers. They can be ordered online at https://mkt.com/UCDavisEntGrad/.

Doctoral candidate Lexie Martin of the lab of community ecologist Rachel Vannette, associate professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, serves as EGSA president.

Treasurer Iris Quayle of the arachnology lab of Professor Jason Bond coordinates the EGSA store.

Popular T-shirts include “The Beetles” (featuring four beetles mimicking The Beatles walking across Abbey Road) and “Bugbie” (a take-off of the Barbie movie craze but spotlighting a pink insect, a rosy maple moth,  Dryocampa rubicunda.)

Among the many EGSA t-shirts:

• “Here for a Good Time, Not a Long Time” (female praying mantis eating the head of a suitor)
• “Would You Love Me If I Was a Worm?”
• “Hang in There: (a pseudoscorpion hanging onto a fly leg)
• “Bee Haw” (honey bee as a cowboy)
• “They See Me Rollin'”: (dung beetle)
• “Cicada Amp”
• “Whip Scorpion”

“We now have hoodies in the Bee-Haw, Whip Scorpion, and Worm designs and tank tops in the Cicada Amp and Dung Beetle designs,” Quayle says.

This is one of the T-shirts designed and offered by the UC Davis Graduate Student Association.

Effects Last Months, Reducing Nut Crop Yields

By Amy Quinton | October 2, 2023

Long-term smoke exposure from massive wildfires lowers the energy reserves of orchard trees and can cut their nut production by half, researchers at the University of California, Davis, found. The smoke can affect trees for months after a megafire, depressing their bloom and the next season’s harvest. This finding reveals a new danger from wildfires that could affect plant health in both agricultural and natural environments.

Nature Plants published the study today (Oct. 2).

“A lot of research focuses on the impact of smoke on humans but there is less study on the effects of smoke on plant health,” said lead author Jessica Orozco, a postdoctoral researcher with the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. “Our study suggests that trees are just as vulnerable as humans.”

Wildfire smoke blocks sunlight

Scientists studied almond, pistachio and walnut trees at 467 orchard sites in California’s Central Valley from 2018 to 2022. In 2020, megafires scorched more than 4.2 million acres in California, filling the skies with smoke and ash. At the time, researchers were studying how trees store energy, in the form of carbohydrates, to cope with heat and drought. But Orozco said the team saw an opportunity to study how smoke affects carbohydrate levels.

“Photosynthesis produces carbohydrates, which are critical elements for tree survival,” said Orozco. “Trees need carbohydrates not just to grow but to store energy for when they’re under stress or when photosynthesis isn’t happening.”

Photosynthesis changes under smoke-filled skies. Smoke particles block some sunlight but also reflect light, creating more diffused light. The diffused light can help trees make more carbohydrates. However, Orozco said the study found that while diffused light increased, the smoke was so thick that it likely didn’t compensate for the loss of direct light.

Megafires have lingering effects on tree health

The team found that megafire smoke not only reduced the amount of carbohydrates in trees but also caused losses that continued even after the fires were out. This led to nut yield decreases of 15% to as much as 50% in some orchards. The most active time for wildfires also coincides with the time trees start storing carbohydrates to sustain them through winter dormancy and spring growth.

“We were expecting to see some impact especially in the months when the smoke was really dense, but we weren’t expecting the smoke to have such a lingering effect and result in a significant drop in yield,” Orozco said.

Orozco said researchers still don’t know what components in megafire smoke caused the decrease in tree carbohydrates. During the 2020 megafires, the smoke reduced light and increased both ozone and particulate matter levels, all of which affect photosynthesis. One or a combination of these factors could have led to the drop in tree carbohydrates.

Additional authors on the study are Professor Maciej A. Zwieniecki and postdoctoral researcher Paula Guzmán-Delgado of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences.

The Almond Board of California, the California Pistachio Research Board, the California Walnut Board and the California Department of Food and Agriculture supported the research.

Courtesy of the UC Davis News and Media Relations

The University of California, Davis, has reached new agreements to license more than a dozen of its world-renowned strawberry varieties to growers in countries across the world.

The agreements ensure that nurseries and fruit growers in Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East have access to all available varieties developed by the UC Davis Public Strawberry Breeding Program.

Strawberry plant varieties developed at UC Davis produce about 60% of all strawberries consumed around the world.

UK-based Global Plant Genetics, or GPG, will add 15 legacy varieties of UC Davis strawberry plants to its existing portfolio in China, South America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. GPG, which has been a UC Davis master licensee since 2018, already oversees licensing of a dozen of the more recently developed UC Davis varieties in those markets.

Fresa Fortaleza, or F2, is the new master licensee for the legacy varieties in Mexico. Since 2020, the San Diego-based company has been the master licensee in Mexico for the more recently developed UC Davis varieties.

Earlier this year, UC Davis severed ties with former master licensee Eurosemillas as to these legacy varieties.

“We are pleased to have expanded our agreements with GPG and Fresa Forteleza,” said Helene Dillard, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “We appreciate the shared commitment to maintaining outstanding relationships with our nurseries and growers and providing vigorous support for the UC Davis Public Strawberry Breeding Program.”

The new agreements cover:

• The European Union, Switzerland and the United Kingdom
• Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay
• China
• Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco and Turkey.

The UC Davis Public Strawberry Breeding Program seeks to address the needs of growers by developing strawberries for positive characteristics including greater yield, flavor, disease resistance, and adaptation to different growing conditions. The university directly licenses strawberry varieties to nurseries in Canada and the U.S. and offers California strawberry growers a competitive advantage through exclusive access to new varieties for two years and reduced royalty rates.

The program, funded primarily by revenue from licensing strawberry varieties, also trains students and postdoctoral researchers to be leaders in the field.

Courtesy of Bill Kisliuk with the UC Davis News and Media Relations 

The University Will Continue to Work With Nurseries and Growers in 20-Plus Affected International Markets

The University of California, Davis, a leader in the development of world-class strawberry varieties for the California and global markets, is terminating all strawberry licensing agreements with Eurosemillas S.A., which has been a master licensee for older UC Davis strawberry varieties in countries outside of the United States.

The decision to terminate the UC Davis Public Strawberry Breeding Program licensing agreements with Eurosemillas does not come lightly. The University of California provided due notice to Eurosemillas of the university’s position that Eurosemillas had defaulted on its agreements, and the university’s concerns were not addressed.

The university is taking steps to provide stability for nurseries and fruit growers during this transition period, and ensure continued access to older UC Davis strawberry varieties. Newer UC Davis strawberry varieties continue to be available throughout the world per licensing agreements with other partners, Fresa Fortaleza and Global Plant Genetics.

“The UC Davis Public Strawberry Breeding Program has been a huge success for consumers, growers, California’s agricultural economy and the global strawberry market,” said Helene Dillard, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “The step the university is taking today is necessary to support our growers and our program, and to ensure the scientific breakthroughs at UC Davis and resources provided by the state of California are cared for, managed and marketed properly.”

UC Davis holds active patents on 20 strawberry varieties, all of which have been licensed to nurseries to sell to strawberry growers.

The university directly licenses strawberry varieties to California nurseries, offering state strawberry growers exclusive access to new varieties for two years and reduced royalty rates to give them a competitive advantage. The university also directly licenses varieties elsewhere in the United States and Canada.

In markets outside North America, the university contracts with master licensees to work with nurseries, farmers and growers. International markets where UC Davis strawberry varieties are grown include the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland; Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay; China; Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco and Turkey; South Africa; Canada; New Zealand and Australia.

UC has been and will continue to be vigilant about supporting the UC Davis Public Strawberry Breeding Program and honoring its obligations to farmers and growers to ensure access to high-quality, affordable varieties in California and elsewhere. As a public research institution, UC diligently protects and promotes its intellectual property to maximize public value, support thriving agricultural economies and ensure reinvestment in university research and education.

About the UC Davis Public Strawberry Breeding Program 

Strawberry varieties developed at UC Davis produce about 60% of all strawberries consumed worldwide.

Varieties developed at UC Davis have made California a leading producer, with the state growing more than 87% of North American strawberries.

The UC Davis Public Strawberry Breeding Program is funded primarily by revenue from licensing strawberry varieties. Licensing funds also support patent expenses, campus inventors, the UC Office of the President and UC Davis.

Annually, the University of California generally receives between $8 million and $9 million in licensing revenue from the strawberry breeding program.

UC Davis develops strawberry varieties for greater yield, disease resistance, flavor, adaptation to different growing conditions and other positive characteristics.

UC Davis breeders work collaboratively with industry leaders to produce fruit that meets the market demand and address the needs of growers.

The program also trains students and postdoctoral researchers to be leaders in this vital industry.

Media Resources

Media Contact:

• Bill Kisliuk, News and Media Relations, 530-760-9726, bkisliuk@ucdavis.edu