Don Grierson | |
---|---|
Born | Donald Grierson 1 October 1945 |
Alma mater | University of East Anglia (BSc) University of Edinburgh (PhD) |
Awards | Bertebos Prize |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | University of Nottingham Zhejiang University |
Thesis | Synthesis of ribosomal ribonucleic acid in developing primary leaves of Phaseolus aureus (1972) |
Doctoral advisor | Ulrich Loening [1] |
Don Grierson is a British geneticist, and Emeritus Professor at University of Nottingham. [2]
Grierson graduated from the University of East Anglia with a degree in Biological Sciences in 1967, [3] after working for a short time in an industrial research lab, he obtained his PhD in Plant Science from the University of Edinburgh in 1972 for research on ribosomal ribonucleic acid in developing primary leaves of the mung bean Phaseolus aureus supervised by Ulrich Loening. [1]
Grierson was a member of academic staff at University of Nottingham for over 40 years [4] where he was awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) degree in 1999.[ citation needed ] He was the founding professor of the School of Biosciences before becoming Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research.
Grierson discovered several plant genes and studied their role in tomato ripening. He also was the first to identify and characterise genes for ACC oxidase (ACO) and demonstrated its role in the synthesis of the hormone ethylene. [5] Grierson was among the first to achieve silencing of plant genes in transgenic plants using antisense (1988, 1990) [6] and sense genes (1990). He was involved in creating a genetically modified tomato in the 1990s which ripened more slowly, a tomato purée made from the tomatoes was the first genetically modified food to be sold in the UK. [7] His research collaborators include Harry Smith. [8] [9]
Grierson was elected fellow of the Institute of Biology in 1985, awarded a research medal by the Royal Agricultural Society of England for "outstanding research in agriculture" in 1990. In 2000 he appointed Order of the British Empire (OBE) for "services to plant gene regulation". [10] In 2001 he received the Bertebos Prize, from the Royal Swedish Academy for Agriculture & Forestry for "pioneering research in modern plant biotechnology". He is now[ when? ] an emeritus professor at Nottingham and also has a part-time position as Guang Biao professor at Zhejiang University. In 2017, he was elected as a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE). [11]
Flavr Savr, a genetically modified tomato, was the first commercially grown genetically engineered food to be granted a license for human consumption. It was developed by the Californian company Calgene in the 1980s. The tomato has an improved shelf-life, increased fungal resistance and a slightly increased viscosity compared to its non-modified counterpart. It was meant to be harvested ripe for increased flavor for long-distance shipping. The Flavr Savr contains two genes added by Calgene; a reversed antisense polygalacturonase gene which inhibits the production of a rotting enzyme and a gene responsible for the creation of APH(3')II, which confers resistance to certain aminoglycoside antibiotics including kanamycin and neomycin. On May 18, 1994, the FDA completed its evaluation of the Flavr Savr tomato and the use of APH(3')II, concluding that the tomato "is as safe as tomatoes bred by conventional means" and "that the use of aminoglycoside 3'-phosphotransferase II is safe for use as a processing aid in the development of new varieties of tomato, rapeseed oil, and cotton intended for food use." It was first sold in 1994, and was only available for a few years before production ceased in 1997. Calgene made history, but mounting costs prevented the company from becoming profitable, and it was eventually acquired by Monsanto Company.
Phaseolus acutifolius, also known as the tepary bean, is a legume native to the southwestern United States and Mexico and has been grown there by the native peoples since pre-Columbian times. It is more drought-resistant than the common bean and is grown in desert and semi-desert conditions from Arizona through Mexico to Costa Rica. The water requirements are low. The crop will grow in areas where annual rainfall is less than 400 mm (16 in).
Chromoplasts are plastids, heterogeneous organelles responsible for pigment synthesis and storage in specific photosynthetic eukaryotes. It is thought that like all other plastids including chloroplasts and leucoplasts they are descended from symbiotic prokaryotes.
Christopher John Leaver is an Emeritus Professorial Fellow of St John's College, Oxford who served as Sibthorpian Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford from 1990 to 2007.
Steven Dale Tanksley is the Chief Technology Officer of Nature Source Improved Plants. Prior to founding Nature Source Improved Plants, Tanksley served as the Liberty Hyde Bailey professor of plant breeding and biometry and chair of the Genomics Initiative Task Force at Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He is currently a Professor Emeritus at Cornell University.
The tomato, Solanum lycopersicum, is a plant whose fruit is an edible berry that is culinarily used as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originated in western South America. It was domesticated in Mesoamerica by peoples including the Aztecs. It was introduced to the Old World by the Spanish in the Columbian exchange in the 16th century.
Roger N. Beachy is an American biologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences who studies plant virology. He was the founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri, and the first director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) is a cyclopropene derivative used as a synthetic plant growth regulator. It is structurally related to the natural plant hormone ethylene and it is used commercially to slow down the ripening of fruit and to help maintain the freshness of cut flowers.
Daphne J. Osborne was a British botanist. Her research in the field of plant physiology spanned five decades and resulted in over two hundred papers, twenty of which were published in Nature. Her obituary in The Times described her scientific achievements as "legendary"; that from the Botanical Society of America attributed her success to "her wonderful intellectual style, combined with her proclivity for remarkable and perceptive experimental findings".
Plant genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity specifically in plants. It is generally considered a field of biology and botany, but intersects frequently with many other life sciences and is strongly linked with the study of information systems. Plant genetics is similar in many ways to animal genetics but differs in a few key areas.
David Sidney Feingold was an American biochemist.
A genetically modified tomato, or transgenic tomato, is a tomato that has had its genes modified, using genetic engineering. The first trial genetically modified food was a tomato engineered to have a longer shelf life, which was on the market briefly beginning on May 21, 1994. The first direct consumption tomato was approved in Japan in 2021. Primary work is focused on developing tomatoes with new traits like increased resistance to pests or environmental stresses. Other projects aim to enrich tomatoes with substances that may offer health benefits or be more nutritious. As well as aiming to produce novel crops, scientists produce genetically modified tomatoes to understand the function of genes naturally present in tomatoes.
George Gow Brownlee FRS FMedSci is a British pathologist and Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.
Ian Bateman OBE US-NAS FBA FEAERE FRSA FRSB is a professor of environmental economics at the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy (LEEP) Institute at the University of Exeter. He is chief editor of the journal "Environmental and Resource Economics". He was formerly a member of the Natural Capital Committee, a member of the Defra Science Advisory Council, and director of the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE).
Robert Tod Schimke was an American biochemist and cancer researcher.
Asis Datta is an Indian biochemist, molecular biologist and genetic engineer, known for his research on genetically modified foods and food nutritional security. He was the founding Director of the National Institute of Plant Genome Research and is credited with the discovery of genes that assist in extended preservation of fruits and vegetables. He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, the highest Indian award and in the Science category, and was awarded the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri, by the Government of India, in 1999. In 2008, he was included again in the Republic Day Honours list for the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan.
Maria J. Harrison is William H. Crocker Scientist professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Science, and adjunct professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University.
Peter John Davies is a professor emeritus of Plant Physiology in the Departments of Plant Biology and Horticulture at Cornell University who is notable for his work on plant development, plant hormones, and in educating the public on agricultural technology and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as a Jefferson Science Fellow from 2011 to 2014. As a Jefferson Science Fellow Davies monitored developments in agriculture and food security, monitored the status of biotech crops in Europe, and provided input to promote the acceptance of these crops on a scientific basis.
Hari Krishan Jain was an Indian cytogeneticist and plant breeder, known for his contributions to the field of genetic recombination and the control of interchromosome level. He is a former chancellor of the Central Agricultural University, Imphal, a former director of the Indian Agriculture Research Institute and a recipient of honours such as Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award, Borlaug Award and Om Prakash Bhasin Award. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1966, for his contributions to biological sciences. He received the fourth highest Indian civilian honor, the Padma Shri, in 1981.
Ethylene (CH
2=CH
2) is an unsaturated hydrocarbon gas (alkene) acting as a naturally occurring plant hormone. It is the simplest alkene gas and is the first gas known to act as hormone. It acts at trace levels throughout the life of the plant by stimulating or regulating the ripening of fruit, the opening of flowers, the abscission (or shedding) of leaves and, in aquatic and semi-aquatic species, promoting the 'escape' from submergence by means of rapid elongation of stems or leaves. This escape response is particularly important in rice farming. Commercial fruit-ripening rooms use "catalytic generators" to make ethylene gas from a liquid supply of ethanol. Typically, a gassing level of 500 to 2,000 ppm is used, for 24 to 48 hours. Care must be taken to control carbon dioxide levels in ripening rooms when gassing, as high temperature ripening (20 °C; 68 °F) has been seen to produce CO2 levels of 10% in 24 hours.