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California State University, San Marcos

Department of Biological Sciences

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Ph.D. Plant Biology 2002; University of California, Davis. Dr. Escobar joined the Biology faculty at CSUSM in Fall, 2005 after completing postdoctoral work at Lund University in Sweden. He is primarily interested in plant molecular biology, plant pathology, and plant biotechnology, with a particular emphasis on perennial crop species. Previous research projects have focused on resistance to crown gall disease and the regulation of alternative respiratory pathways in plants.

Escobar, M.A., Geisler, D.A., and Rasmusson, A.G. (2006). Reorganization of the alternative pathways of the Arabidopsis respiratory chain by nitrogen supply: opposing effects of ammonium and nitrate. Plant J. 45: 775-788.

Escobar, M.A. and Rasmusson A.G. (2005). Photocontrol of respiratory type II NAD(P)H dehydrogenase genes: Cryptochrome, but not hy5, is a critical component of light signaling. In: A. van der Est and D. Bruce, eds. Photosynthesis: Fundamental aspects to global perspectives. Allen Press, Lawrence, Kansas. pp. 909-911.

Escobar, M.A., Franklin, K.A., Salter, M.G., Whitelam, G.C., and Rasmusson, A.G. (2004). Light regulation of the Arabidopsis respiratory chain: multiple discrete photoreceptor responses contribute to induction of type II NAD(P)H dehydrogenase genes. Plant Physiol. 136: 2710-2721.

Escobar, M.A., Civerolo, E.L., Polito, V.S., Pinney, K.A., and Dandekar, A.M. (2003). Characterization of oncogene-silenced transgenic plants: Implications for Agrobacterium biology and post-transcriptional gene silencing. Mol. Plant Pathol. 4: 57-65.

Escobar, M.A. and Dandekar, A.M. (2003). Agrobacterium tumefaciens as an agent of disease. Trends Plant Sci. 8: 380-386.

Escobar, M.A. and Dandekar, A.M. (2003). Post-transcriptional gene silencing in plants. In: J. Barciszewski and V. Erdmann, eds. Noncoding RNAs: Molecular Biology and Molecular Medicine. Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, Texas. pp. 129-140.

Escobar, M.A., Leslie, C.A., McGranahan, G.H., and Dandekar, A.M. (2002) Silencing crown gall disease in walnut (Juglans regia L.). Plant Sci. 163: 591-597.

Escobar, M.A. and Dandekar, A.M. (2002). Transgenic Crops (Perennials). In: D. Pimentel ed. Encyclopedia of Pest Management. Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York. pp. 850-851.

Escobar, M.A., Civerolo E.L., Summerfelt, K.R., and Dandekar, A.M. (2001). RNAi-mediated oncogene silencing confers resistance to crown gall tumorigenesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 98: 13437-13442.

Escobar, M.A., Park, J., Polito, V.S., Leslie, C.A., Uratsu, S.L., McGranahan, G.H. and Dandekar A.M. (2000). Using GFP as a Scorable Marker in Walnut Somatic Embryo Transformation. Ann. Bot. 85: 831-835.

Escobar, M.A. and Dandekar, A.M. (2000). Development of Insect Resistance in Fruit and Nut Tree Crops. In: S.M. Jain and S.C. Minocha, eds. Molecular Biology of Woody Plants. Vol. 2. Kluwer Publications, Dordrecht, Netherlands. pp. 395-417.