Issue 6: Autumn 2006
Continued Excellence of Science
This issue of ‘Advances’ showcases a year of continued excellence in scientific output. The list of high impact journals in which we achieve publication is tremendous and I am sure our readers would wish to join me in congratulating the teams concerned. Our science is having real and sustained impact – not only in terms of intellectual property, but also in terms of informing policy, and this is also reflected in the recognition that our scientists are receiving.
Phil
Dale (in photograph) and Alison Smith were both awarded OBEs this year.
Emeritus Professor Phil Dale was listed in the New Year Honours for his
work on plant genetics, and Professor Alison Smith in the Birthday Honours
for her services to plant biochemistry. There is a full profile on Alison
on page 5 “Spotlight on a scientist”.
Three Royal Medals, known also as The Queen’s Medals,
are awarded annually by the Sovereign upon the recommendation of the Royal
Society’s Council. This year’s Royal Medals have been awarded
to Sir John Pendry FRS, Dr Tim Hunt FRS and Professor David Baulcombe FRS,
Group Leader in The Sainsbury Laboratory.
David’s citation is
“for his profoundly significant recent discoveries, for not only plants but for all of biology and for medicine”.
The BBSRC’s periodic review of JIC went very well, and we have carefully restructured our science programmes to meet the needs of the next few years. We have also merged our support and administration services with those of the neighbouring Institute of Food Research into ‘The Operations Centre’, which will give an annual cost saving of £700K for JIC. Both these events have led to staff losses, which have been distressing, but necessary for continued resilience and excellence.
This summer has seen the BA Festival in Norwich, which was a fantastic success with over 50,000 people attending events. Our scientists, supported by The Operations Centre, were heavily involved. I hope that you enjoy reading ‘Advances’.
Chris Lamb
Director, John Innes Centre
BA
Festival: Seed to Seed
As part of the hugely successful BA Festival of Science in Norwich in September, Prof Nick Harberd read extracts from his popular science book “Seed to Seed” at the King of Hearts Music Room.
Nick’s book was published by Bloomsbury Press in April 2006 and gives a fascinating insight into the life of a scientist and how discoveries from the laboratory explain the secret workings of the natural world. Nick is a Project Leader in the department of Cell and Developmental Biology working on the regulation of plant growth.
ISBN 0-7475-7039-6
Triple
awards for top young scientist
Project Leader and David Phillips Fellow Giles Oldroyd was singled out as one of Europe’s top life scientists by the EMBO Young Investigator Programme in November 2005. This prestigious award provides funds for research as well as a mentorship programme, sponsorship of lectures at international meetings, an annual symposium and a laboratory management course.
This spring, Giles participated in Celebrating British Science, an event held as part of National Science Week hosted by the Royal Society and the Department of Trade and Industry that paid tribute to Britain’s leadership in science, technology and innovation. He won the 2006 Society for Experimental Biology Presidents’ Medal. Giles’ research hit the news headlines in June when his work on root nodulation was published in Nature.
A year of science highlights
NOTE: Subcriptions may be required to access some of these articles electronically.
AUGUST 2005
To flower or not to flower
Dr Phil Wigge’s group working in collaboration with scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Germany identified the chemical in Arabidopsis that signals plants to flower in the right season and in the right place on the plant. These findings, reported in Science showed how this molecule called FT triggers flower formation at the growing tip of the plant. Since flowers ultimately produce fruits and seeds, this discovery could have important future applications in crop plants.
Smallest cereal genome sequenced
In the same week, the complete genome of rice was published in Nature by the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project. This collaboration of researchers from ten nations (including Michael Bevan and Ian Bancroft from JIC) was established in 1998 to obtain the sequence of the 389 Mega-base rice genome. Rice has played a significant role in human nutrition for the past 10,000 years and it is estimated that world rice production needs to increase by 30% over the next 20 years to meet the demands of an increasing population. Obtaining the genome sequence of rice will help the development of techniques that will increase yields to meet these needs. In addition, rice has the smallest genome of the major cereals and so provides an excellent model for studying other grasses.
SEPTEMBER 2005
Detecting pathogen invasion
Ray Dixon’s group published work in Nature describing a novel sensing mechanism for Nitric Oxide (NO) in Escherichia coli. Nitric oxide is used by eukaryotes to protect themselves against pathogen infection. In response to this, bacteria such as E. coli have evolved defence mechanisms that counteract the effects of NO. Prof. Dixon’s work has identified how NO is detected by a protein called NorR that binds to it and activates genes required for the breakdown of NO.
NOVEMBER 2005
Molecular summertime detector
This month saw a breakthrough in understanding how crop plants use day length to decide when to flower. David Laurie’s group isolated a gene called Photoperiod-H1 that is involved in the circadian rhythm patterns of barley. Since different varieties of barley around the world have adapted to flower early or late depending on the regional climate, this work could help breeders grow new varieties that cope with changing agricultural conditions brought about by global climate change.
DECEMBER 2005
Root hair cells provide a clue to cell growth
Liam Dolan’s group working on root hair formation in the model plant Arabidopsis have identified and characterised a gene called Supercentipede1 that is involved in controlling the direction of growth of plant cells. By understanding how plants direct their size and structure, researchers hope in the future to be able to produce better performing crops with increased yield.
JANUARY 2006
Switching identity
In another study of root hair cells of Arabidopsis, Silvia Costa and Peter Shaw published a paper in Nature describing how these cells can switch identity and turn into a different cell type during development in response to positional information. This work demonstrates how chromatin is re-organised, controlling expression of a gene that determines the fate of the cell.
Restraining order for plants
In the same month, Nick Harberd’s group published work in Science, detailing how DELLA proteins actively restrain growth in adverse conditions, enhancing the plant’s survival chances in non-optimal environments.
FEBRUARY 2006
Breakthrough for plant breeders
In February the work of Graham Moore’s group made headline news following a major breakthrough in wheat genetics involving over thirty person years of work. Published in Nature, the team sequenced a gene complex called Ph1 that controls the pairing of its chromosomes. This knowledge could allow breeders to cross commercially grown varieties with wild varieties to give characteristics such as increased tolerance to drought, and has the potential to revolutionise wheat breeding.
MARCH 2006
Big hit on small scale
JIC published its first nanotechnology paper in a new journal Small. This ground breaking fundamental research resulted from the collaboration between a chemist and a virologist and may have far reaching potential in medical as well as industrial applications. Using a harmless virus of Cowpea plants which has a unique structure that makes it an ideal scaffold for decoration with various chemicals to give different characteristics, their graduate student, Nicole Steinmetz, produced electronically active nanoparticles which can be thought of as “molecular capacitors”.
APRIL 2006
Resistance is futile
By studying variations of two natural antibiotics produced by the naturally occurring soil dwelling bacteria Streptomyces, called novobiocin and clorobiocin, Tony Maxwell and colleagues have determined which parts of the molecules are essential for their antibacterial activity. They hope that by varying other parts of the molecules they can design new antibiotics with better activity and fewer side effects in the fight against drug-resistant “Super-bugs” such as MRSA.
JUNE 2006
Beginning of the end for nitrogen fertilizers?
Giles
Oldroyd’s group have triggered the growth of root nodules in legumes
without the bacteria normally necessary. Plants such as legumes use bacteria
in the root nodules to convert nitrogen from the air into a form that can
be used by plants, a process called “nitrogen fixation”.
This achievement, reported in Nature is an important step towards transferring this ability to form nodules and fix nitrogen to other crops which could reduce the need for inorganic fertilizers and has been heralded by some as the start of the second agricultural revolution.
AUGUST 2006
Snapdragons take the evolutionary high road
Research on the evolution of colour variation in snapdragon (Antirrhinum)
was published in Science in August. The research led by Enrico Coen
in collaboration with Andrew Bangham at UEA used a pioneering computer
modelling technique to trace how plants evolved in the wild from producing
magenta flowers to yellow ones without producing in-between colours such
as orange that are non-attractive to pollinating bees. These results provide
a new way of looking at the evolution of two apparently distinct traits
and will help scientists better understand biodiversity of plants in their
natural environment.
Prof.
Alison Smith OBE is an expert on carbohydrate metabolism in plants.
A childhood passion for nature has shaped her career and is still evident
in her favourite hobbies of walking, gardening and keeping exotic plants.
Married to Mark Buttner, also a researcher at JIC, Alison describes
herself as a metabolic biochemist with an interest in how whole plants
grow, not just in biochemical pathways.
In
June Dr Ian Bedford’s Entomology team won a Highly Commended Award
in the Educational category for their insect display at the BBC Gardeners’ World
Live Show which incorporated a Plant Pest & Disease clinic. 
We
are all dominated by our need to look at and interact with the faces of
others. We detect emotion, we know whose face it is we are talking to,
we fall in love with them, and we make images of them. This obsession is
reflected in the close attention of both scientists and artists to faces
in general and to particular faces. The exhibition featured commissioned
artwork from UK artists Simon Tegala, Keith Piper and Alexa Wright, who
collaborated with leading UK scientists working on various aspects of face
biology to explore how faces are made in the womb, how neural activity
in our brains allows us to identify and understand faces and their associated
expressions and how we construct gender, age, and ethnicity from a glance.