Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry Research Article of the Year Award 2023

The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (JAFC) and the ACS Divisions of Agrochemicals (AGRO) and Agricultural and Food Chemistry (AGFD) are delighted to announce the winners of the 2023 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry Research Article of the Year Award. Launched in 2013, this award annually recognizes outstanding research work in the areas of agrochemicals and food chemistry with the support of the ACS Division of Agrochemicals and Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Congratulations to this year’s award recipients! The awards will be presented at ACS Fall 2023. Each award consists of an honorarium, a plaque, and travel expenses to attend the ACS National Meeting to present their research. The AGFD Division Award will be presented at 8:00-8:40 AM on Tuesday 15 August 2023 in Room 3010, West Building, Moscone Center, San Francisco, and the AGRO Division Award will be presented on the same day at 11:00-11:55 AM in neighboring Room 3014.

Plant growth regulators (PGRs) play an essential role in improving crop yield and quality. This exceptional research article reports a new PGR, guvermectin (GV), isolated from plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, which can promote root and coleoptile growth, tillering, and early maturing in rice. A four-year field trial involving 28 rice varieties showed that seed-soaking treatment with GV increased yields by 6.2 to 19.6%, outperforming other PGRs.

Excessive sugar intake is a global problem linked to the global obesity pandemic and related metabolic diseases. In this outstanding research article, the authors report the enzymatic production and in vitro digestibility of three novel glycosides. These new sugars showed a reduced digestibility and a limited impact on energy metabolism, indicating their promise as potential future sweeteners with healthier properties.

Accepting the Research Article of the Year Award (AGRO Division) on behalf of all co-authors: Dr. Shanshan Li and Dr. Wensheng Xiang

Dr. Shanshan Li is a professor at the Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IPPCAAS, China). Her research interests are focused on agricultural natural product discovery from Streptomyces and strain engineering for production enhancement of valuable chemicals, including isolation and screening of useful strains in the agricultural field, elucidation of general metabolic and regulatory mechanisms of biosynthesis of target natural chemicals, and development of useful approaches to construct high-yield cell factories of target natural products.

Dr. Wensheng Xiang is a professor at Northeast Agricultural University (NEAU, China) and Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IPPCAAS, China). His research interests are agricultural natural product discovery and industrialization. He has implanted industrialization of four biopesticides including milbemycins as well as the novel plant growth regulator guvermectin. Moreover, he has received four National and Provincial Science and Technology Awards.

Accepting the Research Article of the Year Award (AGFD Division) on behalf of all co-authors: Dr. Shari Dhaene

Shari Dhaene is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Synthetic Biology (Glycodirect) at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium where she currently fulfils the role as industrial liaison with the focus on rare sugar production. After finishing her higher education at Ghent University in 2017 as Master of Science in Bioscience Engineering in Chemistry and Bioprocess technology, she started as a Ph.D. researcher at the Centre for Synthetic Biology sponsored by the Flemish government with a “Strategic Basic Research” (SBO) grant funded by FWO Flanders (Glycoprofit). During this period, she was a member of the Glycodirect group where she focused on the production and evaluation of rare (and novel) disaccharides.