Michael Freeling

Last updated
Michael Freeling
Born(1945-01-14)January 14, 1945
Indiana
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Indiana University Bloomington
Awards McClintock Prize (2017)
Scientific career
Fields Genetics, Plant Biology
Institutions University of California, Berkeley
Thesis  (1973)
Doctoral advisor Drew Schwartz
Website http://freelinglab.berkeley.edu/

Michael Freeling is an American geneticist and plant biologist. He is currently a professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California. He is known for early work on maize anaerobic metabolism, developmental genetics of the maize ligule, proposing the grasses as a single genetic system model with Jeffrey Bennetzen, and the discovery of biased gene retention following whole genome duplications in plants. In 1994 Freeling was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. [1] In 2017 he was awarded the McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies. [2]

Contents

Education and career

Freeling was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States in 1945. He attended the University of Oregon graduating with an A.B. in 1968. He then join Drew Schwartz's research group at the Indiana University Bloomington where he also worked with Marcus Rhoades. Completing his PhD in 1973 he was hired by the University of California, Berkeley as an Assistant Professor of Genetics. Freeling was promoted to Associate Professor in 1979, and to full professor in 1984. [3] In 1980 he was selected as a Guggenheim Fellow which supported his time as a visiting professor at the Rothamsted Experimental Station, in England [3] [4]

Research

Abiotic Stress

In the 1980 Freeling found an early response to anaerobic conditions is the suppression of the translation of mRNAs. After several hours a small group of anaerobic peptides including alcohol dehydrogenases are produced instead. [5] He also found that the cytoplasmic acidosis was a good predictor of how poorly plants can tolerate flooding stress. [6]

Comparative Genomics

Freeling and Jeffrey Bennetzen proposed the model of the grasses as a single genetic system. [7] Freeling developed tools for identifying conserved non-coding sequences in plant genomes and has played a role in sequencing the genomes of papaya, sorghum, banana, Brassica rapa, pineapple and strawberry. [8]

Freeling's research group also studies ancient whole genome duplications. He identified biased gene loss between duplicated regions of the arabidopsis genome. [9] In maize they found that genes on the copy of the genome had lost more genes tended to be expressed at lower levels than duplicate copies of the same genes on the copy of the genome which had lost fewer genes. [10]

Trainees

Between 1973 and 2014 Freeling was the mentor for 27 PhD students and 49 postdocs, including four who went on to also be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleopolyploidy</span> State of having undergone whole genome duplication in deep evolutionary time

Paleopolyploidy is the result of genome duplications which occurred at least several million years ago (MYA). Such an event could either double the genome of a single species (autopolyploidy) or combine those of two species (allopolyploidy). Because of functional redundancy, genes are rapidly silenced or lost from the duplicated genomes. Most paleopolyploids, through evolutionary time, have lost their polyploid status through a process called diploidization, and are currently considered diploids, e.g., baker's yeast, Arabidopsis thaliana, and perhaps humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan R. Wessler</span> American biologist

Susan Randi Wessler, ForMemRS, is an American plant molecular biologist and geneticist. She is Distinguished Professor of Genetics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR).

Jeffrey Lynn Bennetzen is an American geneticist on the faculty of the University of Georgia (UGA). Bennetzen is known for his work describing codon usage bias in yeast, and E. coli; being the first to clone and sequence an active transposon in plants, discovering that most of the DNA in plant genomes was a particular class of mobile DNA (LTR-retrotransposons); solving the C-value paradox; proposing sorghum and Setaria as model grasses; showing that rice centromeres were hotspots for recombination, but not crossovers; and developing a technique to date polyploidization events. He is an author, with Sarah Hake of the book "Handbook of Maize." Bennetzen was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2004.

Evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) is the study of developmental programs and patterns from an evolutionary perspective. It seeks to understand the various influences shaping the form and nature of life on the planet. Evo-devo arose as a separate branch of science rather recently. An early sign of this occurred in 1999.

Syntelog: a special case of gene homology where sets of genes are derived from the same ancestral genomic region. This may arise from speciation events, or through whole or partial genome duplication events. This term is distinct from ortholog, paralog, in-paralog, out-paralog, and xenolog because it refers only to genes' evolutionary history evidenced by sequence similarity and relative genomic position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joachim Messing</span> German-American biologist (1946–2019)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plant genetics</span> Study of genes and heredity in plants

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.

The Biffen Lecture is a lectureship organised by the John Innes Centre, named after Rowland Biffen.

Ac/Ds transposable controlling elements was the first transposable element system recognized in maize. The Ac Activator element is autonomous, whereas the Ds Dissociation element requires an Activator element to transpose. Ac was initially discovered as enabling a Ds element to break chromosomes. Both Ac and Ds can also insert into genes, causing mutants that may revert to normal on excision of the element. The phenotypic consequence of Ac/Ds transposable element includes mosaic colors in kernels and leaves in maize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McClintock Prize</span> Prize awarded annually to scientists studying plant genome structure, function and evolution

The McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies is a prize awarded in genetics and genomics. The Prize is awarded by the Maize Genetics Executive Committee, and is presented to the Prize winner each spring at the Annual Maize Genetics Conference.

Robert Anthony Martienssen is a British plant biologist, Howard Hughes Medical Institute–Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation investigator, and professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, US.

Arabidopsis thaliana is a first class model organism and the single most important species for fundamental research in plant molecular genetics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth H. Wolfe</span> Irish geneticist and academic

Kenneth Henry Wolfe is an Irish geneticist and professor of genomic evolution at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland.

Decreased DNA Methylation I (DDM1), is a plant gene that encodes a nucleosome remodeler which facilitates DNA methylation. The DDM1 gene has been described extensively in Arabidopsis thaliana and also in maize. The protein has been described to be similar to the SWI2/SNF2 chromatin remodeling proteins.

Robert J. Schmitz is an American plant biologist and epigenomicist at the University of Georgia where he studies the generation and phenotypic consequences of plant epialleles as well as developing new techniques to identify and study cis-regulatory sequences. He is an associate professor in the department of genetics and the UGA Foundation Endowed Pant Sciences Professor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Hake</span> American plant biologist

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carolyn Lawrence-Dill</span> American plant biologist

Carolyn Joy Lawrence-Dill is an American plant biologist and academic administrator. She develops computational systems and tools to help plant science researchers use plant genetics and genomics data for basic biology applications that advance plant breeding.

Katrien M. Devos is an American plant geneticist who is distinguished research professor at the University of Georgia. Her research considers the structure, function and evolution of the genomes of grasses. In particular, Devos considers halophytic turfgrasses, cereals and bioenergy crops. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2016.

Brandon Stuart Gaut is an American evolutionary biologist and geneticist who works as a Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Schnable</span> American plant geneticist

James C. Schnable is a plant geneticist and the Nebraska Corn Checkoff Presidential Chair at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln where his research program focuses on developing new technologies for crop genetics and breeding.

References

  1. "Michael Freeling".
  2. "Freeling Awarded McClintock Prize".
  3. 1 2 "Bibliography".
  4. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Michael Freeling".
  5. Sachs, Martin M., Michael Freeling, and Ronald Okimoto. "The anaerobic proteins of maize." Cell 20.3 (1980): 761-767. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(80)90322-0
  6. Roberts, J. K., Callis, J., Jardetzky, O., Walbot, V., & Freeling, M. (1984). Cytoplasmic acidosis as a determinant of flooding intolerance in plants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 81(19), 6029-6033. doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.81.19.6029
  7. Bennetzin, J. L., & Freeling, M. (1993). Grasses as a single genetic system: genome composition, collinearity and compatibility. Trends in Genetics, 9(8), 259-261. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/0168-9525(93)90001-X
  8. "Michael (Mike) Freeling".
  9. Thomas, B. C., Pedersen, B., & Freeling, M. (2006). Following tetraploidy in an Arabidopsis ancestor, genes were removed preferentially from one homeolog leaving clusters enriched in dose-sensitive genes. Genome research, 16(7), 934-946. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.4708406
  10. Schnable, J. C., Springer, N. M., & Freeling, M. (2011). Differentiation of the maize subgenomes by genome dominance and both ancient and ongoing gene loss. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(10), 4069-4074. doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1101368108
  11. "Freeling Lab historical".