D'Ann Rochon (1955-2022), a life of passion for plant virology

Hélène Sanfaçon; Syed Benazir Alam; Basudev Ghoshal; Kankana Ghoshal; Elizabeth Hui; Andrew O Jackson; Kishore Kakani; T Jack Morris; Peter D Nagy; Anne E Simon; Tim L Sit; Thomas J Smith; K Andrew White; Yu Xiang

doi:10.1016/j.virol.2023.109874

D'Ann Rochon (1955-2022), a life of passion for plant virology

Virology. 2023 Oct:587:109874. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2023.109874. Epub 2023 Sep 8.

Authors

Hélène Sanfaçon¹, Syed Benazir Alam², Basudev Ghoshal³, Kankana Ghoshal⁴, Elizabeth Hui⁵, Andrew O Jackson⁶, Kishore Kakani⁷, T Jack Morris⁸, Peter D Nagy⁹, Anne E Simon¹⁰, Tim L Sit¹¹, Thomas J Smith¹², K Andrew White¹³, Yu Xiang¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ Summerland Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 4200 Highway 97, V0H 1Z0, Summerland, BC, Canada. Electronic address: helene.sanfacon@agr.gc.ca.
² Nanotechnology Research Center, National Research Council Canada, 11421 Saskatchewan Dr NW, T6G 2M9, Edmonton, AB, Canada. Electronic address: syedbenazir@gmail.com.
³ Summerland Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 4200 Highway 97, V0H 1Z0, Summerland, BC, Canada. Electronic address: basudev.ghoshal@agr.gc.ca.
⁴ Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Sidney Laboratory, Center for Plant Health, 8801 East Saanich Road, V8L 1H3, Victoria, BC, Canada. Electronic address: kankana.ghoshal@inspection.gc.ca.
⁵ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Electronic address: elizabeth.hui@msl.ubc.ca.
⁶ Department of Plant & Microbial Biology, UC-Berkeley, USA. Electronic address: andyoj@berkeley.edu.
⁷ Enzyme/Protein Engineering, Twist Bioscience, 681 Gateway Blvd., South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA. Electronic address: kkakani@twistbioscience.com.
⁸ School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA. Electronic address: jmorris1@unl.edu.
⁹ Department of Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA. Electronic address: pdnagy2@uky.edu.
¹⁰ Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland - College Park, College Park, MD, USA. Electronic address: simona@umd.edu.
¹¹ Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, NC State University, Campus Box 7616, Raleigh, NC 27695-7616, USA. Electronic address: tlsit@ncsu.edu.
¹² University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 301 University Boulevard, Route 0645, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA. Electronic address: thosmith@utmb.edu.
¹³ Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada. Electronic address: kawhite@yorku.ca.
¹⁴ Summerland Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 4200 Highway 97, V0H 1Z0, Summerland, BC, Canada. Electronic address: yu.xiang@agr.gc.ca.

PMID: 37690385
DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2023.109874

Abstract

D'Ann Rochon passed away on November 29^th 2022. She is remembered for her outstanding contributions to the field of plant virology, her strong commitment to high quality science and her dedication to the training and mentorship of the next generation of scientists. She was a research scientist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and an Adjunct Professor for the University of British Columbia. Her research program provided new insights on the infection cycle of tombusviruses and related viruses, including ground-breaking research on the structure of virus particles, the mechanisms of virus transmission by fungal zoospores, and the complexity of plant-virus interactions. She also developed diagnostic antibodies for plum pox virus and little cherry virus 2 that have had a significant impact on the management of these viruses.

Keywords: D'Ann Rochon; Fungus transmission; Little cherry virus; Plant virology; Plum pox virus; Tombusviruses; Tribute; Virus structure.

Publication types

Review