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Karen Koch is a plant biologist in the horticultural science department in the University of Florida. [1] [2] [3] She is a professor in the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology (PMCB) [4] Program, Horticultural Sciences Department, and Genetics Institute at University of Florida.
Koch's lab is best known for its research on sugar-responsive gene expression and the capacity for this process to alter form and function of plants. Sugar availability provides pivotal cues for adjustment of genes affecting C and N allocation in plants. [5] Of all the nutrients and hormones involved, sucrose remains the “life blood” of plants. This sugar occupies a truly central position in vascular transport, carbon partitioning within the plant, and as a source of sugar signals for responsive genes.
Her group thus focuses on genes that affect sucrose metabolism, its contribution to sugar signaling, and its partitioning to different end products. Particular attention is being directed toward maize kernel (fruit) development, cell-wall composition, and mechanisms of sugar transfer. Single-gene knockout mutants are being used to examine gene function.
Current[ when? ] projects are testing hypotheses for carbon-partitioning and gene expression in developing maize ovaries from floral differentiation to kernel harvest, and for involvement of key genes in cell wall biosynthesis at strategic stages of development (e.g. root-hair and pollen-tube elongation, early phases of kernel differentiation, and growth of seedlings).
Here are the list of publications [6] from Koch's lab.
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Koch is the 2016 recipient of the Charles Reid Barnes Award , the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB)’s oldest award. According to ASPB 'Karen has excelled in research, in the training of students of plant biology, and in service to the Society. Her research on carbohydrate metabolism and sugar signaling is known internationally and her training of plant biology students is legendary.' [7] [8]
Her work on carbon metabolism and the effects of sugars on gene expression was one of five 2012 fellows inducted by the ASPB organization. Koch’s “feast and famine” framework for regulating the expression of genes forms the basis for understanding the responses of plant organs to sugar signaling to optimize resource allocation. She served the group as an elected member of its Executive Committee and is the first Fellow of ASPB recipient from Florida. She was on the Plant Physiology editorial board from 1987 to 1993. [9]
A carbohydrate is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 and thus with the empirical formula Cm(H2O)n, which does not mean the H has covalent bonds with O. However, not all carbohydrates conform to this precise stoichiometric definition, nor are all chemicals that do conform to this definition automatically classified as carbohydrates.
Carbohydrate metabolism is the whole of the biochemical processes responsible for the metabolic formation, breakdown, and interconversion of carbohydrates in living organisms.
Martin Gibbs was an American biochemist and educator who worked in the field of carbon metabolism. The Martin Gibbs Medal, an award honoring individuals in plant sciences, is named in his honor.
The snow pea is an edible-pod pea with flat pods and thin pod walls. It is eaten whole, with both the seeds and the pod, while still unripened.
The University of Florida College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), founded in 1964, is a college of the University of Florida.
Joachim Wilhelm "Jo" Messing was a German-American biologist who was a professor of molecular biology and the fourth director of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University.
The rice weevil is a stored product pest which attacks seeds of several crops, including wheat, rice, and maize.
Gloria M. Coruzzi is an American molecular biologist specializing in plant systems biology and evolutionary genomics.
Alan M. Jones is an American cell biologist. He is Kenan Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has a joint appointment with the Department of Pharmacology in the UNC School of Medicine. He is a past President of the American Society of Plant Biologists. He is a Fellow of The American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of American Society of Plant Biologists, and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow.
Christine Helen Foyer is professor of plant science at the University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. She is President Elect of the Association of Applied Biologists, the General Secretary of the Federation of European Societies of Plant Biologists, an elected Board Member of the American Society of Plant Biologists and a Member of the French Academy of Agriculture. She has published and co-authored many papers on related subjects.
Wendy Boss is an American botanist and the current William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on plant physiology and phosphoinositide mediated signalling in plants. Phosphoinositols are derived from the phospholipids found in plasma membrane of the cell. Phosphoinositols are known to be key molecules in signal transduction pathways. The role of this chemical in plants is however not well understood and Dr. Boss' research has contributed significantly towards understanding this topic.
Ralph Louis Obendorf is an Emeritus Professor of Crop Physiology at Cornell University who is notable for his research on the health-related components in seeds, particularly fagopyritol A1, which is isosteric to an insulin mediator believed to be deficient in subjects with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus and polycystic ovary syndrome, which affects 10% of women of reproductive age.
Sarah Wyatt is an American, plant molecular biologist. She is a Professor in the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology at Ohio University, as well as director of the Ohio University Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Wyatt's research interests include molecular biology, genomics, and signaling events. She is considered one of the world's experts on gravitational signaling in plants, and some of her recent research includes an experiment on board the International Space Station (ISS).
Dennis Gonsalves is an American phytopathologist. He has created with his team two virus-resistant papaya cultivars called SunUp and Rainbow, which rescued the papaya sector in Hawaii from the devastating effects of the papaya ringspot virus that hit in the late 1990s.
Richard A. Dixon is distinguished research professor at the University of North Texas, a faculty fellow of the Hagler Institute of Advanced Study and Timothy C. Hall-Heep distinguished faculty chair at Texas A&M University.
Elizabeth Anna Ainsworth is an American plant physiologist currently employed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS). She also is an Adjunct Professor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and was awarded the 2018 Crop Science Society of America Presidential Award. She is known for her work concerning the effects of specific atmospheric pollutants, including ozone and carbon dioxide, on the productivity of selected major crops such as corn and soybeans.
Donald Richard Ort is an American botanist and biochemist. He is the Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he works on improving crop productivity and resilience to climate change by redesigning photosynthesis. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB).
Sarah Hake is an American plant developmental biologist who directs the USDA's Plant Gene Expression Center in Albany, CA. In 2009 she was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and elected member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Maureen Hanson is an American molecular biologist and Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She is a joint member of the Section of Plant Biology and Director of the Center for Enervating Neuroimmune Disease. Her research concerns gene expression in chloroplasts and mitochondria, photosynthesis, and the molecular basis of the disease Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).
Jen Sheen is a biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School who is known for her work on plant signaling networks. She is an elected member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Karen Koch is the 2016 recipient of the Charles Reid Barnes Award, the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB)'s first honor. According to ASPB 'Karen has excelled in research, in the training of students of plant biology, and in service to the Society. Her research on carbohydrate metabolism and sugar signaling is known internationally and her training of plant biology students is legendary'
2016 Winner: Karen Koch. Karen Koch (University of Florida) is this year's recipient of the Charles Reid Barnes Award, ASPB's first honor. Karen has excelled in research, in the training of students of plant biology, and in service to our society. Her research on carbohydrate metabolism and sugar signaling is known internationally; her training of plant biology students is legendary; and having attended every annual ASPB meeting for the past 40 years, she is a model for us all.
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