College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Horticulture

Education and Training

• Postdoctoral Research Geneticist at the USDA-ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Station (2012-2016)
• Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics from the University of Maryland, College Park (2012)
• B.A. in Biology from Goucher College, Baltimore MD (2003)

Research Overview

My lab uses molecular, genetic, and genomic approaches to study aspects of plant developmental biology and physiology that could lead to high-impact advancements in tree fruit agriculture. This includes investigating genes and pathways that regulate plant size, branch orientation, flower and fruit development, and bloom time. This work incorporates a wide range of lab, field, and bioinformatic techniques and uses both model and crop species including arabidopsis, tobacco, tomato, peach, plum, cherry, and apple. 

Select Publications

Goeckeritz CZ, Grab C, Grumet R, Iezzoni AF, and *Hollender CA. Genetic factors acting prior to dormancy in sour cherry may influence bloom time the following spring. Journal of Experimental Botany erae15. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erae157

Kohler A, Scheil A, Hill Jr Jl, Allen JR, Al-Hadad JM, Goeckeritz CZ, Strader LC, Telewski F, and *Hollender CA. (2024) Defying Gravity: WEEP promotes negative gravitropism in peach trees by establishing asymmetric auxin gradients. Plant Physiology, kiae085. https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiae085

Waite, JM, Hollender, CA; Eilers JR, Burchard, E, Dardick, C (2024) Peach LAZY1 and DRO1 protein-protein interactions and co-expression with PRAF/RLD family support conserved gravity-related protein interactions across plants. microPublication Biology. https://doi.org/10.17912/micropub.biology.000995

Goeckeritz C, Rhoades K, Childs K, Iezzoni A, *VanBuren R, *Hollender C. Genome of tetraploid sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) ‘Montmorency’ identifies three distinct ancestral Prunus genomes (2023) Horticulture Research, Volume 10, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhad097

Goeckeritz C, Gottschalk C, van Nocker S, and *Hollender CA. (2023) Malus Species with Diverse Bloom Times Exhibit Variable Rates of Floral Development. J. of the American Society for Horticultural Science 148(2), 64-73. https://doi.org/10.21273/JASHS05236-22

Johnson JM, Kohler AR, Haus MJ, and *Hollender CA. (2022) Arabidopsis weep mutants exhibit narrow root angles. microPublication Biology. https://doi.org/10.17912/micropub.biology.000584

Hillmann L, Elsysy M, Goeckeritz C, Hollender C, Rothwell N, Blanke M, Einhorn T. (2021) Preanthesis changes in freeze resistance, relative water content, and ovary growth preempt bud phenology and signify dormancy release of sour cherry floral buds. Planta. 254(4):74 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-021-03722-0

Hollender C and Liu Z (2021) ‘Not your average plant: shining a light on developmental diversity.’ Current Opinion in Plant Biology 59:102016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2021.102016

Goeckeritz C, *Hollender CA. (2021) There is more to flowering than those DAM genes: the biology behind bloom in rosaceous fruit trees. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 59:101995. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2020.101995

*Hollender CA, Hill JL, Waite J, Dardick C. (2020) Opposing influences of TAC1 and LAZY1 on Lateral Shoot orientation in Arabidopsis. Scientific Reports 10, 6051 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62962-4

Hill JL and *Hollender CA (2019) Branching out: new insights into the genetic regulation of shoot architecture in trees. Current Opinions in Plant Biology 47:73-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2018.09.010

Hollender CA, Guseman J, Tabb A, Raines D, Srinivasan C, *Dardick C. (2018) Alteration of TAC1 expression in Prunus species leads to pleiotropic shoot phenotypes. Horticulture Research 5:26 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41438-018-0034-1

Hollender CA , Pascal T , Tabb A , Hadiarto T, Srinivasan C , Wang W, Liu Z , Scorza R, *Dardick C. (2018). Loss of a highly conserved Sterile Alpha Motif domain gene (WEEP) results in pendulous branch growth in peach trees. PNAS 115 (20) E4690-E4699. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1704515115

Hollender CA, Hadiarto T, Srinivasan C, Scorza R, *Dardick C. (2016) A brachytic dwarfism trait (dw) in peach trees is caused by a nonsense mutation within the gibberellic acid receptor PpeGID1c. New Phytologist 210: 227–239.  https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.13772

Hollender CA and Dardick C. (2015) Molecular basis of angiosperm tree architecture. New Phytologist 206(2):541-556.  https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.13204

Hollender CA, Kang C, Darwish O, Geretz A, Matthews BF, Slovin J, Alkharouf N, and Liu Z. (2014) Floral transcriptomes in woodland strawberry uncover developing receptacle and anther gene networks. Plant Physiology 165:1062-1075. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.114.237529

Dardick C, Callahan A, Horn R, Ruiz KB, Zhebentyayeva T, Hollender C, Whitaker M, Abbot A, and Scorza R.  (2013) PpeTAC1 promotes the horizontal growth of branches in peach trees and is a member of a functionally conserved gene family found in diverse plant species.  The Plant Journal 75(4):618-30. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.12234

Hollender CA, Geretz AC, Slovin JP, and Liu Z (2012) Flower and early fruit development in a diploid strawberry, Fragaria vesca. Planta 235:1123–1139.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-011-1562-1

Grigorova B, Mara C, Hollender C, Sijacic P, Chen X, and Liu Z (2011) LEUNIG and SEUSS co-repressors regulate miR172 expression in Arabidopsis flowers.  Development 138, 2451-2456. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.058362

Links

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