Deborah Pierson Delmer is an American plant pathologist, and professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis.
Later, she attended the University of California, San Diego, where she identified the pathway of tryptophan biosynthesis in plants, an area others had not studied,[8] using Nicotiana tabacum as a model.
She began studying the mechanisms by which plants polymerize glucose molecules and synthesize cellulose for their cell walls, using cotton fiber as a model system.
[8][9] Using a combination of approaches from molecular biology and genetics, Delmer and her collaborators developed a cDNA library and were the first to identify a plant gene involved in the synthesis of cellulose.
She has emphasized the need for plant biology to become a translational science and encouraged scientists to address in-the-field problems faced by farmers, such as falling rates of crop production under conditions of stress and low inputs.