Ann Sakai

Last updated
Ann K. Sakai
Alma materUniversity of Michigan
Scientific career
Thesis Ecological and evolutionary aspects of sex expression in silver maple (Acer saccharinum L.)  (1978)

Ann Kiku Sakai is a plant biologist at the University of California, Irvine known for her work on plant breeding and speciation. She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Contents

Education and career

Sakai received a B.A. from Oberlin College in 1972. [1] [2] She went on to earn a master's degree [3] and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan working on the ecology of silver maple trees. [4] Following her Ph.D., she held positions at Oakland University and the University of Chicago before moving to the University of California, Irvine [5] where she has been a professor since 2002. [3]

From 1993 until 1994 Sakai was a program officer in the Division of Environmental Biology at the National Science Foundation. [6]

Research

Sakai is known for her work on plant breeding systems and how they have evolved over time. Her research uses two plants as model systems: the genus of Schiedea where she examines dioecy and pollination and the genus Oxalis where she studies heterostyly or variations in shape. Sakai's early research examined the role of temperature in plant survival. [7] [8] She went on to examine spatial patterns in sex of silver maple trees [9] and aspen trees. [10] Sakai has examined sex expression [11] and inbreeding in Schiedea flowering plants. [12] She has also used Hawaiian plants as a model to examine dioecy, or the presentation of separate male and female plants. [13] [14] Some of the plants Sakai researches are endangered species, and she has examined the reasons for declining plant populations [15] and the population genetics of invasive species. [16] Her work includes collaborations with Stephen Weller, including the observation that pollination of Schiedea flowering plants occurs through the actions of a Hawaiian moth. [17] Her work on conservation of Schiedea kauaiensis was portrayed in a 2019 video describing how she is studying and protecting rare plants in Kaua'i, Hawaii, through her work with students, amateur botanists, and the National Tropical Botanical Garden. [18]

Sakai has defined the conditions that lead to a lack of retention of women in science [6] and has sought to broaden participation of underrepresented groups. [19] In 2011, Sakai received funding from the National Science Foundation to establish the PLANTS program (Preparing Leaders and Nurturing Tomorrow's Scientists) which aims to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in botany. [20] [21] In the period from 2011 until 2015, more than 60 students were able to use this funding to attend a botany meeting and interact with mentors in the field. [22]

Selected publications

Awards and honors

Sakai was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012. [23] In 2019, Sakai was named a Distinguished Fellow of the Botanical Society of America, the highest honor bestowed by the society. [19]

Related Research Articles

Self-incompatibility (SI) is a general name for several genetic mechanisms that prevent self-fertilization in sexually reproducing organisms, and thus encourage outcrossing and allogamy. It is contrasted with separation of sexes among individuals (dioecy), and their various modes of spatial (herkogamy) and temporal (dichogamy) separation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orobanchaceae</span> Family of flowering plants known as broomrapes

Orobanchaceae, the broomrapes, is a family of mostly parasitic plants of the order Lamiales, with about 90 genera and more than 2000 species. Many of these genera were formerly included in the family Scrophulariaceae sensu lato. With its new circumscription, Orobanchaceae forms a distinct, monophyletic family. From a phylogenetic perspective, it is defined as the largest crown clade containing Orobanche major and relatives, but neither Paulownia tomentosa nor Phryma leptostachya nor Mazus japonicus.

<i>Austrobaileya</i> Genus of plants in the family Austrobaileyaceae

Austrobaileya is the sole genus consisting of a single species that constitutes the entire flowering plant family Austrobaileyaceae. The species Austrobaileya scandens grows naturally only in the Wet Tropics rainforests of northeastern Queensland, Australia.

Dioecy is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly or indirectly. Dioecious reproduction is biparental reproduction. Dioecy has costs, since only the female part of the population directly produces offspring. It is one method for excluding self-fertilization and promoting allogamy (outcrossing), and thus tends to reduce the expression of recessive deleterious mutations present in a population. Plants have several other methods of preventing self-fertilization including, for example, dichogamy, herkogamy, and self-incompatibility.

<i>Schiedea</i> Genus of flowering plants

Schiedea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae. It contains 34 species and is endemic to Hawaii.

Androdioecy is a reproductive system characterized by the coexistence of males and hermaphrodites. Androdioecy is rare in comparison with the other major reproductive systems: dioecy, gynodioecy and hermaphroditism. In animals, androdioecy has been considered a stepping stone in the transition from dioecy to hermaphroditism, and vice versa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gynodioecy</span> Coexistence of female and hermaphrodite within a population

Gynodioecy is a rare breeding system that is found in certain flowering plant species in which female and hermaphroditic plants coexist within a population. Gynodioecy is the evolutionary intermediate between hermaphroditism and dioecy.

Schiedea lydgatei is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name Kamalo Gulch schiedea and Pacific schiedea. It is endemic to Hawaii, where it is known only from the island of Molokai. It is threatened by the degradation and destruction of its habitat. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanne Renner</span> German botanist

Susanne Sabine Renner is a German botanist. Until October 2020, she was a professor of biology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich as well as director of the Botanische Staatssammlung München and the Botanischer Garten München-Nymphenburg. Since January 2021, she lives in Saint Louis, where she is an Honorary Professor of Biology at Washington University and a Research Associate at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Kalin Arroyo</span> New Zealand botanist

Dr. Mary Therese Kalin-Arroyo was born in 1944 in New Zealand. She is currently a professor of biology at the University of Chile. Kalin-Arroyo is notable for revising the indigenous genus Ourisia and discovering several new species in New Zealand. Her studies have also led to the designation of central Chile as a biodiversity hotspot.

Floral biology is an area of ecological research that studies the evolutionary factors that have moulded the structures, behaviour and physiological aspects involved in the flowering of plants. The field is broad and interdisciplinary and involves research requiring expertise from multiple disciplines that can include botany, ethology, biochemistry, and entomology. A slightly narrower area of research within floral biology is sometimes called pollination biology or anthecology.

The floral axis is the area of the flower upon which the reproductive organs and other ancillary organs are attached. It is also the point at the center of a floral diagram. Many flowers in division Angiosperma appear on floral axes. The floral axis can differ in form depending on the type of plant. For example, monocotyledons have a weakly developed floral axis compared to dicotyledons, and will therefore rarely possess a floral disc, which is common among dicotyledons.

Jill L. Bubier is a professor emerita of environmental science at Mount Holyoke College (MHC). Her research examines how Northern ecosystems respond to climate change.

Raymond Carl Jackson was an American botanist, known as Ray Jackson, noted "for his work in cytogenetics, particularly on polyploidy, and for his discovery of low chromosome numbers in angiosperms."

John Cameron Semple is a botanist, cytotaxonomist, professor emeritus, and adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. He was born in Boston and earned a degree of Bachelor of Science in 1969 from Tufts University, followed in 1971 and 1972 by Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Washington University in St. Louis. Semple is known for his work with members of the tribe Astereae, particularly goldenrods, American asters, and goldenasters, and he maintains the University of Waterloo Astereae Lab website. Semple's wife is Brenda, and in 2013, he named a newly discovered goldenrod species Solidago brendiae in honor of her.

Warren Lambert Wagner is an American botanist, a curator of botany, and a leading expert on Onagraceae and plants of the Pacific Islands, especially plants of the Hawaiian Islands.

Emanuel David "Rudy" Rudolph was a botanist, lichenologist, and historian of botany. He was "the first botanist to conduct diverse experiments on the total biology of lichens in both polar regions".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monoecy</span> Sexual system in seed plants

Monoecy is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy, and contrasted with dioecy where individual plants produce cones or flowers of only one sex and with bisexual or hermaphroditic plants in which male and female gametes are produced in the same flower.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual system</span> Distribution of male and female functions across a species.

A sexual system is a pattern of sex allocation or a distribution of male and female function across organisms in a species. Terms like reproductive system and mating system have also been used as synonyms.

Dioicy is a sexual system where archegonia and antheridia are produced on separate gametophytes. It is one of the two main sexual systems in bryophytes, the other being monoicy. Both dioicous and monoicous gametophytes produce gametes in gametangia by mitosis rather than meiosis, so that sperm and eggs are genetically identical with their parent gametophyte.

References

  1. ↑ "Biology Seminar — "Life after Oberlin: Conservation, Plants, and Pollinators"". Oberlin College and Conservatory. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  2. ↑ "UC Irvine - Faculty Profile System - Ann K. Sakai". www.faculty.uci.edu. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  3. 1 2 "Ann Sakai". cms.botany.org. 2017. Retrieved 2021-12-07.
  4. ↑ Sakai, Ann Kiku (1978). Ecological and evolutionary aspects of sex expression in silver maple (Acer saccharinum L.) (Thesis). OCLC   11818302.
  5. ↑ "2018 Dean's Report by UCI School of Biological Sciences - Issuu". issuu.com. p. 25. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  6. 1 2 Sakai, Ann K.; Lane, Melissa J. (1996). "National Science Foundation Funding Patterns of Women and Minorities in Biology". BioScience. 46 (8): 621–625. doi:10.2307/1312991. ISSN   0006-3568. JSTOR   1312991.
  7. ↑ Sakai, A. (1966-02-01). "Studies of Frost Hardiness in Woody Plants. II. Effect of Temperature on Hardening". Plant Physiology. 41 (2): 353–359. doi:10.1104/pp.41.2.353. ISSN   0032-0889. PMC   1086345 . PMID   16656262.
  8. ↑ Sakai, A. (1970). "Freezing Resistance in Willows from Different Climates". Ecology. 51 (3): 485–491. doi:10.2307/1935383. JSTOR   1935383.
  9. ↑ Sakai, Ann K.; Oden, Neal L. (1983). "Spatial Pattern of Sex Expression in Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum L.): Morisita's Index and Spatial Autocorrelation". The American Naturalist. 122 (4): 489–508. doi:10.1086/284151. ISSN   0003-0147. S2CID   83883438.
  10. ↑ Sakai, Ann K.; Burris, Timothy A. (1985). "Growth in Male and Female Aspen Clones: A Twenty-Five-Year Longitudinal Study". Ecology. 66 (6): 1921–1927. doi:10.2307/2937388. JSTOR   2937388.
  11. ↑ Sakai, Ann K.; Weller, Stephen G. (1991). "Ecological Aspects of Sex Expression in Subdioecious Schiedea Globosa (caryophyllaceae)". American Journal of Botany. 78 (9): 1280–1288. doi:10.1002/j.1537-2197.1991.tb11420.x. ISSN   1537-2197.
  12. ↑ Sakai, Ann K.; Karoly, Keith; Weller, Stephen G. (1989). "Inbreeding Depression in Schiedea Globosa and S. Salicaria (caryophyllaceae), Subdioecious and Gynodioecious Hawaiian Species". American Journal of Botany. 76 (3): 437–444. doi:10.1002/j.1537-2197.1989.tb11332.x. ISSN   1537-2197.
  13. ↑ Sakai, Ann K.; Wagner, Warren L.; Ferguson, Diane M.; Herbst, Derral R. (1995). "Origins of Dioecy in the Hawaiian Flora". Ecology. 76 (8): 2517–2529. doi:10.2307/2265825. JSTOR   2265825.
  14. ↑ Weller, Stephen G.; Sakai, Ann K.; Rankin, Anne E.; Golonka, Annette; Kutcher, Brenda; Ashby, Karen E. (1998). "Dioecy and the evolution of pollination systems in Schiedea and Alsinidendron (Caryophyllaceae: Alsinoideae) in the Hawaiian Islands" . American Journal of Botany. 85 (10): 1377–1388. doi:10.2307/2446396. ISSN   0002-9122. JSTOR   2446396. PMID   21684891.
  15. ↑ Sakai, Ann K.; Wagner, Warren L.; Mehrhoff, Loyal A. (2002-03-01). Funk, Vicki (ed.). "Patterns of Endangerment in the Hawaiian Flora" . Systematic Biology. 51 (2): 276–302. doi:10.1080/10635150252899770. ISSN   1076-836X. PMID   12028733.
  16. ↑ Sakai, Ann K.; Allendorf, Fred W.; Holt, Jodie S.; Lodge, David M.; Molofsky, Jane; With, Kimberly A.; Baughman, Syndallas; Cabin, Robert J.; Cohen, Joel E.; Ellstrand, Norman C.; McCauley, David E. (2001). "The Population Biology of Invasive Species". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 32 (1): 305–332. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.32.081501.114037. ISSN   0066-4162.
  17. ↑ Weller, Stephen G.; Sakai, Ann K.; Campbell, Diane R.; Powers, John M.; Peña, Sean R.; Keir, Matthew J.; Loomis, Alexander K.; Heintzman, Scott M.; Weisenberger, Lauren (2017). "An enigmatic Hawaiian moth is a missing link in the adaptive radiation of Schiedea". New Phytologist. 213 (3): 1533–1542. doi: 10.1111/nph.14254 . ISSN   0028-646X. PMID   28079938.
  18. ↑ "Video: How to save a species from going EXTINCT | Plants are Cool, Too!". Botany Depot. 2021-01-29. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  19. 1 2 "Distinguished Fellow of the Botanical Society of America". Botanical Society of America. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
  20. ↑ "NSF Award Search: Award # 1137471 - PLANTS (Preparing Leaders and Nurturing Tomorrow's Scientists): Increasing the diversity of plant scientists". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  21. ↑ "NSF Award Search: Award # 1549708 - PLANTS II: Increasing the diversity of plant scientists". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  22. ↑ "Plant Science Bulletin". Vol. 62, no. 3. Botanical Society of America. 2016. pp. 121–123. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  23. ↑ "Historic Fellows | American Association for the Advancement of Science". www.aaas.org. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
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