Anna Amtmann

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Anna Amtmann
Alma mater Heidelberg University (BS)
University of Göttingen (MSc, PhD)
Scientific career
Institutions University of York
University of Glasgow
Thesis Ca2-360 und NA+ im Cytoplasma der Meeresalge Acetabularia : Aktivitätsbestimmungen mit ionenselektiven Mikroelektroden und kinetische  (1993)

Anna Amtmann is a German scientist. She is professor for Molecular Plant Physiology at the University of Glasgow. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Plant, Cell & Environment .

Contents

Early life and education

Amtmann studied languages, mathematics and biology at the University of Paris and Heidelberg University. [1] She was an Erasmus Programme student at the University of Barcelona. [2] Amtmann completed her graduate degrees in biology in the laboratory of Dietrich Gradmann at the University of Göttingen. [2] Her doctoral research involved the use of electrophysiology to study unicellular marine algae, in an effort to understand how they maintain homeostasis for calcium and sodium ions.

Research and career

In 1993, after earning her PhD, Amtmann investigated ion transport properties in barley in Dale Sanders' laboratory at the University of York. Whilst at York she developed microarrays that could be used to monitor how ion transporters responded to nutrient deficiency and salinity. [1]

Amtmann was appointed a lecturer at the University of Glasgow in 2001 and was promoted to Professor in 2014. She spent 2007 on sabbatical at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Golm. [2] Her research considers the mechanisms by which plants adapt to nutrient deficiency, drought and salinity. She has explored how solar-powered microorganisms could be used to extra salt from seawater. [3] [4] Amtmann's research has been supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. [5] She is a co-director of Algae UK, one of six Networks in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (NIBBs) that look to support the UK's transition to a low carbon economy. Algae UK looks to increase research and development into high value products created from microalgae and macroalgae, as well as increasing attention to cyanobacterial synthetic biology. [6]

Selected publications

Amtmann is the editor-in-chief of Plant, Cell & Environment . [7]

Personal life

Amtmann is married to Pawel Herzyk, who she met during her first postdoctoral position at the University of York. [2] Together they have twin boys. [2]

Related Research Articles

Abiotic stress is the negative impact of non-living factors on the living organisms in a specific environment. The non-living variable must influence the environment beyond its normal range of variation to adversely affect the population performance or individual physiology of the organism in a significant way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nutrition</span> Provision to cells and organisms to support life

Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient nutrients causes malnutrition. Nutritional science is the study of nutrition, though it typically emphasizes human nutrition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vitamin K</span> Fat-soluble vitamers

Vitamin K is a family of structurally similar, fat-soluble vitamers found in foods and marketed as dietary supplements. The human body requires vitamin K for post-synthesis modification of certain proteins that are required for blood coagulation or for controlling binding of calcium in bones and other tissues. The complete synthesis involves final modification of these so-called "Gla proteins" by the enzyme gamma-glutamyl carboxylase that uses vitamin K as a cofactor.

Halotolerance is the adaptation of living organisms to conditions of high salinity. Halotolerant species tend to live in areas such as hypersaline lakes, coastal dunes, saline deserts, salt marshes, and inland salt seas and springs. Halophiles are organisms that live in highly saline environments, and require the salinity to survive, while halotolerant organisms can grow under saline conditions, but do not require elevated concentrations of salt for growth. Halophytes are salt-tolerant higher plants. Halotolerant microorganisms are of considerable biotechnological interest.

In cellular biology, active transport is the movement of molecules or ions across a cell membrane from a region of lower concentration to a region of higher concentration—against the concentration gradient. Active transport requires cellular energy to achieve this movement. There are two types of active transport: primary active transport that uses adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and secondary active transport that uses an electrochemical gradient. This process is in contrast to passive transport, which allows molecules or ions to move down their concentration gradient, from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration, without energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plant nutrition</span> Study of the chemical elements and compounds necessary for normal plant life

Plant nutrition is the study of the chemical elements and compounds necessary for plant growth and reproduction, plant metabolism and their external supply. In its absence the plant is unable to complete a normal life cycle, or that the element is part of some essential plant constituent or metabolite. This is in accordance with Justus von Liebig’s law of the minimum. The total essential plant nutrients include seventeen different elements: carbon, oxygen and hydrogen which are absorbed from the air, whereas other nutrients including nitrogen are typically obtained from the soil.

Dale Sanders, FRS was Director of the John Innes Centre, an institute for research in plant sciences and microbiology in Norwich, England.

<i>Dunaliella</i> Genus of algae

Dunaliella is a single-celled, photosynthetic green alga, that is characteristic for its ability to outcompete other organisms and thrive in hypersaline environments. It is mostly a marine organism, though there are a few freshwater species that tend to be more rare. It is a genus in which certain species can accumulate relatively large amounts of β-carotenoids and glycerol in very harsh growth conditions consisting of high light intensities, high salt concentrations, and limited oxygen and nitrogen levels, yet is still very abundant in lakes and lagoons all around the world.

Vitamin B<sub><small>12</small></sub> Vitamin used in animal cells metabolism

Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is a water-soluble vitamin involved in metabolism. It is one of eight B vitamins. It is required by animals, which use it as a cofactor in DNA synthesis, and in both fatty acid and amino acid metabolism. It is important in the normal functioning of the nervous system via its role in the synthesis of myelin, and in the circulatory system in the maturation of red blood cells in the bone marrow. Plants do not need cobalamin and carry out the reactions with enzymes that are not dependent on it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red algae</span> Division of plant life

Red algae, or Rhodophyta, are one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae. The Rhodophyta comprises one of the largest phyla of algae, containing over 7,000 currently recognized species with taxonomic revisions ongoing. The majority of species (6,793) are found in the Florideophyceae (class), and mostly consist of multicellular, marine algae, including many notable seaweeds. Red algae are abundant in marine habitats but relatively rare in freshwaters. Approximately 5% of red algae species occur in freshwater environments, with greater concentrations found in warmer areas. Except for two coastal cave dwelling species in the asexual class Cyanidiophyceae, there are no terrestrial species, which may be due to an evolutionary bottleneck in which the last common ancestor lost about 25% of its core genes and much of its evolutionary plasticity.

<i>Arthrospira</i> Genus of Cyanobacteria

Arthrospira is a genus of free-floating filamentous cyanobacteria characterized by cylindrical, multicellular trichomes in an open left-hand helix. A dietary supplement is made from A. platensis and A. maxima, known as spirulina. The A. maxima and A. platensis species were once classified in the genus Spirulina. Although the introduction of the two separate genera Arthrospira and Spirulina is now generally accepted, there has been much dispute in the past and the resulting taxonomical confusion is tremendous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zeba Islam Seraj</span> Bangladeshi biochemist

Zeba Islam Seraj is a Bangladeshi scientist known for her research in developing salt-tolerant rice varieties suitable for growth in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. She is currently a professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka.

Usha Vijayraghavan is an Indian molecular biologist. She is on the faculty of the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, at the Indian Institute of Science. Her major research interests are Molecular Genetics, Plant Development.

Plant, Cell & Environment is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Wiley-Blackwell. The editor-in-chief is Anna Amtmann.

Alison Gail Smith, Lady Hopper is Professor of Plant Biochemistry in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research investigates the metabolism of plants, algae and bacteria, in particular vitamin and cofactor biosynthesis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Larkum</span>

Anthony William Derek Larkum is a british plant scientist and academic based in Sydney. He is Professor Emeritus of Plant Sciences at the University of Sydney and Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Walden</span> English structural biologist

Helen Walden is an English structural biologist who received the Colworth medal from the Biochemical Society in 2015. She was awarded European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) membership in 2022. She is a Professor of Structural Biology at the University of Glasgow and has made significant contributions to the Ubiquitination field.

Sabeeha Sabanali Merchant is a professor of plant biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies the photosynthetic metabolism and metalloenzymes In 2010 Merchant led the team that sequenced the Chlamydomonas genome. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine primary production</span> Marine synthesis of organic compounds

Marine primary production is the chemical synthesis in the ocean of organic compounds from atmospheric or dissolved carbon dioxide. It principally occurs through the process of photosynthesis, which uses light as its source of energy, but it also occurs through chemosynthesis, which uses the oxidation or reduction of inorganic chemical compounds as its source of energy. Almost all life on Earth relies directly or indirectly on primary production. The organisms responsible for primary production are called primary producers or autotrophs.

Christoph Benning is a German–American plant biologist. He is an MSU Foundation Professor and University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. Benning's research into lipid metabolism in plants, algae and photosynthetic bacteria, led him to be named Editor-in-Chief of The Plant Journal in October 2008.

References

  1. 1 2 "University of Glasgow - Research Institutes - Institute of Molecular, Cell and Systems Biology - All staff - Dr Anna D Amtmann". www.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Professor Anna Amtmann | Royal Society". royalsociety.org. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  3. Eisenach, Cornelia (1 November 2011). "Using Biology to Solve the Problem of Water Shortage • theGIST". theGIST. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  4. "Water Portal :: People". www.wskep.net. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  5. "Grant winners – 21 July 2016". Times Higher Education (THE). 21 July 2016. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  6. "New opportunities for green biotechnology". www.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  7. "Plant, Cell & Environment". Wiley Online Library. doi:10.1111/(issn)1365-3040 . Retrieved 24 December 2019.