HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INSTITUTE | 2011 ANNUAL REPORT

 

Meet the first 15 HHMI-GBMF investigators by selecting a portrait from the grid. To learn why HHMI and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation have partnered to support fundamental plant science research, read the story below.

 
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  • Benfey’s lab asks how stem cells turn into exquisitely specialized organs, such as plant roots. In this image, bioluminescence from the enzyme luciferase marks the sites of future lateral roots in growing plants.

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  • Bergmann uses stomata, the structures plants use to regulate the exchange of gas and water, as a model for her studies of developmental biology. This microscope image shows the epidermis of a very young leaf, with cells outlined in blue and the expression patterns of transcription factors and signaling peptides in pink and yellow, respectively.

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  • Chan uses the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana (pictured here) to study how chromosomes are inherited during cell division. This fundamental work set the stage for the development of a new approach to one of the biggest challenges in plant breeding—creating true breeding varieties rapidly via a process known as genome elimination.

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  • Gene regulation by small RNAs influences a plant’s development. Chen studies the impact of this regulatory RNAs on flower development. In the Arabidopsis plant whose flower is shown here, the APETALA2 gene has been rendered resistant to the microRNA miR172. The result is a flower that consists of numerous petals and sepaloid organs and lacks reproductive organs.

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  • Dangl’s lab aims to understand how plants recognize pathogens and respond to infection. The leaf shown here has been infected by pathogen called an oomycete. The oomycete gains entry into the leaf’s intracellular spaces through natural openings and then grows by extending hyphae (the purple strings) between cells.

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  • The NPR1 protein is a key immune regulator in plants. In a normal Arabidopsis plant, shown on the left, the immune signal salicylic acid induces the activity of some genes (red) while repressing the activity of others (green). In the npr1 mutant shown on the right, these effects are blocked, leading to enhanced susceptibility to infection.

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  • By identifying and then reinserting a gene that the wheat plant lost over centuries of cultivation, Dubcovsky boosted the grain’s protein, zinc, and iron content to make it more nutritious. Following those successes in the laboratory, he has helped distribute the improved seeds to countries around the world.

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  • This image shows an Arabidopsis plant overlaid on a protein interaction network map. Development of a complete protein interaction network will allow scientists to better understand how plant proteins communicate within cells, which, in turn, will shed light on questions as diverse as how plants recognize and respond to pathogens and even the signals that tell fruits to ripen.

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  • The plant hormone auxin has been implicated in virtually every stage of plant growth and development. Estelle’s lab is using the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana (pictured here) to identify and characterize auxin response pathways.

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  • The bacterium Pseudomonas syringae, shown in the background, causes bacterial spec disease in Arabidopsis, the most common plant model organism. The disease, shown in the plant in the foreground, is characterized by dead leaves and insufficient chlorophyll, which causes pale yellow leaves. By studying this disease, He has revealed important principles underlying disease susceptibility in plants.

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  • In collaboration with Nobelist and fellow Cold Spring Harbor biologist Barbara McClintock, Martienssen has used maize to study genetic elements, called transposons, that can move from one chromosome to another. By studying mutant plants that are impaired in their ability to attach chemical methyl groups to DNA, Martienssen discovered that transposons regulate genes by acquiring methyl groups.

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  • This photo of Arabidopsis flowers shows the varied patterns and proportions of cells in the flowers’ outer layer. Cell nuclei and plasma membranes are shown in green, while chloroplasts are shown in red for contrast. The pattern develops progressively from the youngest flowers near the center to the older flowers on the periphery.

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  • These Arabidopsis plants are key to Niyogi’s research on photosynthesis because they carry a mutation affecting their ability to release excess light as heat, a process known as nonphotochemical quenching.

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  • This image shows the relative locations of two nuclear enzymes in Arabidopsis—RNA polymerase IV (green) and RNA polymerase II (red)—each of which transcribes DNA into RNA. Pikaard’s work has helped show how RNA Polymerases IV and V, which evolved in plants as specialized forms of RNA polymerase II, function in the silencing of retrovirus-like transposable elements and certain essential repeated genes, such as ribosomal RNA genes, by a process known as RNA-directed DNA methylation.

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  • Torii’s lab uses live-cell imaging to chart the signaling pathways cells use to influence the patterning and orientation stomata, adjustable valves that enable efficient carbon dioxide uptake while minimizing water loss. Stomata are used spaced at regular intervals throughout the leaf epidermis, but in the plant shown above, elevated activity of the transcription factor SCRM has caused the entire complement of epidermal cells to adopt stomatal cell lineage fate.

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15 New Plant Scientists

Plants are intertwined with our lives—sustaining us with food, shelter, and oxygen and nurturing us with shade and beauty. Biologically speaking, we are made of the same stuff; in many ways, the better we understand plants, the better we understand ourselves.

In recognition of the critical importance of plant science, in 2011, HHMI partnered with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF) to name 15 innovative plant biologists as the first HHMI-GBMF investigators.

Their investigations of the molecules, cells, and systems that drive plants’ growth and environmental interactions offer insights into parallel systems underlying human biology and provide knowledge that can be applied to global challenges.

Plants contribute directly to human health by providing basic nutrition. Therefore, a better understanding of how plants grow and interact with their environments is essential to feed the world more sustainably.

Moreover, because food crops must increasingly compete with biofuels for land and other resources, as we turn to biological alternatives to fossil fuels, we need to know what makes a plant grow efficiently. Plants are also a rich source of pharmaceuticals. Yet, fundamental plant research has long been underfunded and underappreciated in the United States.

As HHMI considered opportunities to advance science in new ways, plant science emerged as an area where the Institute could make important contributions. In 2008, HHMI gathered leaders in the field to discuss the future of plant biology, and workshop attendees concluded that additional investment in the plant sciences was timely and important.

Many of the same molecular tools and technologies accelerating the pace of biomedical research offer the potential for tremendous gains in plant research. Yet, restrictive funding has forced even the best plant biologists to limit the scope of their work.

HHMI and GBMF, a California-based foundation that seeks positive change by supporting fundamental nonbiomedical research and environmental conservation, recognized that enabling creative plant biologists to pursue bold research could result in large contributions to science and society.

“These outstanding plant biologists are doing research that will, in a variety of ways, have an impact on human lives,” says Jack Dixon, HHMI’s vice president and senior science officer. “We hope that their contributions through the HHMI-GBMF program will encourage further support of plant biology from other funding institutions.”

The 15 HHMI-GBMF investigators, selected in a nationwide competition, are leaders in a variety of fields. Many have dedicated their careers to the study of plants, captivated early on by the symmetry of a flower or the efficient transformation of sunlight to energy. Others are immunologists, developmental biologists, and geneticists who—like HHMI—welcomed plants into their research programs because they offer unique opportunities to address the questions the scientists considered most important.

In labs at 13 host institutions throughout the country, the new investigators are exploring ways to make photosynthesis more efficient, elucidating the mechanisms that coordinate flowering to environmental conditions, and investigating how roots are formed.

Their studies have already improved the nutrition of a strain of wheat, identified a strategy plants use to recognize pathogens (later found to also help protect human cells), and uncovered surprising similarities in the ways plants and humans switch genes on and off.

Using powerful genetic tools, keen powers of observation, and bustling greenhouses, the HHMI-GBMF plant biologists are following their curiosity about biological processes that pique the interest of many other HHMI scientists: stem cells, cellular communication, host-microbe interactions, and genetic regulation. Their unique perspectives can only be an asset.

As Jeff Dangl, HHMI-GBMF investigator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says, “The more oblique views a community can have bearing down on their problem, the better off it's going to be.”

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Putting Janelia Farm on the Map

Putting Janelia Farm on the Map

Five years after it opened, HHMI’s Janelia Farm Research Campus is starting to look like the intellectual hub its founders envisioned.

The New Pace of Genomics

The New Pace of Genomics

Thanks to faster, cheaper DNA sequencing, researchers are uncovering new links between genes and disease.

The Roots of Memory

The Roots of Memory

Janelia Farm scientists are beginning to unravel the mysteries of so-called spatial memory by studying how flies remember favorite locations.

Year in Review: Research Highlights

Year in Review: Research Highlights

Learn about some of the notable discoveries made by HHMI researchers in 2011.

Photo credits: Philip Benfey: Jim R. Bounds/AP, Philip Benfey; Dominique Bergmann: Tony Avelar/AP, Carrie Metzinger; Simon Chan: Steve Yeater/AP,Raphael Mercier/Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; Xuemei Chen: Carlos Puma/AP,Xuemei Chen; Jeff Dangl: ounds, Jim R. Bounds/AP,Petra Epple, Dangl Lab; Xinnian Dong: Jim R. Bounds/AP, Dong Wang, Mohan Rajinikanth, and Xinnian Dong; Jorge Dubcovsky: Steven Yeater/AP, Jorge Dubcovsky; Joseph Ecker: Dennis Poroy/AP, Junshi Yazaki (Salk Institute) and the Arabidopsis Interactome Mapping Consortium; Mark Estelle: Denis Poroy/AP, USDA/Peggy Greb; Sheng Yang He: Gary Malerba/AP, Sheng Yang He; Robert Martienssen: Kathy Kmonicek/AP, USDA/Keith Weller; Elliot Meyerowitz: Eric Reed/AP, Dr. Adrienne Roeder; Krishna Nigoya: Steve Yeater/AP, Krishna Niyogi; Craig Pikaard: AJ Mast/AP, Olga Pontes; Keiko Torii: Stephen Brashear/AP, Keiko Torii