Rachel is from St. Louis, Missouri and received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Missouri. Her research focused on improving the quality and nutritional value of soybean seed oil by alteration of the seed fatty acid composition through genetics and molecular breeding techniques.
As a PhD student in the TPSGP, Rachel is studying field pennycress and wild grapevine in the lab of Dr. Andrea Gschwend. Her dissertation research is focused on elucidating the morphological and molecular response of pennycress, a winter cover crop, to waterlogged field conditions. Her approaches consist of gene expression studies between tolerant and non-tolerant accessions, field studies in well versus poorly drained areas, comparative genomic analyses with other brassica oilseeds, and gene-editing for functional validation of stress-responsive genes. Her work will contribute to the domestication of pennycress as a resilient and high-performing biofuel cover crop.
Email: combs.355@osu.edu
Education
BS, Biology, University of Missouri, 2018
Long Term Career Interests
Genomics
Bioinformatics
Current Status in TPS
Post-candidacy
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Andrea Gschwend
Co-Mentor: Dr. Alex Lindsey
First Year Rotation
1. Andrea Gschwend
2. Joshua Blakeslee
Grants & Awards
2021 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
2020 HCS Graduate Research Symposium PhD Flash Talk Competition, Second Place
2019 HCS Graduate Research Symposium PhD Flash Talk Competition, Second Place
2019 University Fellowship, Ohio State University
Publications
Dietz, N., Combs-Giroir, R., Cooper, G., Stacey, M., Miranda, C., & Bilyeu, K. (2021). Geographic distribution of the E1 family of genes and their effects on reproductive timing in soybean. BMC plant biology, 21(1), 1-13.
Fan, P., Wang, P., Lou, Y.R., Leong, B.J., Moore, B.M., Schenck, C.A., Combs, R., Cao, R., Brandizzi, F., Shiu, S.H., and Last, R.L. (2020). Evolution of a plant gene cluster in Solanaceae and emergence of metabolic diversity. Elife, 9, p.e56717.
Combs, R., & Bilyeu, K. (2019). Novel alleles of FAD2-1A induce high levels of oleic acid in soybean oil. Molecular Breeding, 39(6), 79.