A plant pathologist at the University of California, Davis, was elected today to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors for scientists in the United States. George Bruening, professor of plant pathology and project director for the Center for Engineering Plants for Resistance Against Pathogens, was one of 59 new members and 14 foreign associates elected at the academy's 129th annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Eight other faculty members from the University of California were among this year's new members. Total academy membership is 1,651, with an additional 289 foreign associates. Election to the academy is based on the originality and quality of a scientist's entire body of work, rather than a single achievement. Bruening's election brings to 14 the number of UC Davis NAS members. Bruening, an internationally recognized molecular virologist, has been a pioneer in the biochemical and genetic study of how plants resist viral diseases. His research has focused on the replication or reproduction of plant viruses, and molecular strategies for controlling viral diseases in plants. A member of the UC Davis faculty since 1967, Bruening has uncovered several important features of the structure of plant viruses and their replication. In recent years, his laboratory has investigated certain large molecules called RNAs or ribonucleic acids that make up the genetic material of many viruses. Some of these RNA molecules actually act as parasites of specific plant viruses. Bruening and colleagues are developing a better understanding of the biochemical and genetic mechanisms involved in this process in order to develop new approaches for reducing the harmful effects of plant virus infections. In 1991, Bruening became project director of UC Davis' $10.4 million Center for Engineering Plants for Resistance Against Pathogens, funded by the National Science Foundation. Scientists at the biotechnology research center are investigating the nature of plant diseases and developing new ways to combat diseases that cause costly crop losses. Bruening, who received his doctoral degree in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1965, is the founding editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. He is a co-author of the fifth edition of the biochemistry textbook "Outlines in Biochemistry." He was elected a Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society in 1986 and has served as councilor of the American Society for Virology from 1987 to 1989. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1974 and a NSF International Program Grant in 1981 and 1989. The NAS is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by congressional charter and serves as an advisory board to the federal government.