Michael W. Bevan

Last updated

Mike Bevan
Born
Michael Webster Bevan

(1952-06-05) 5 June 1952 (age 71) [1]
Alma mater
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Thesis Differentiation in plant tissue cultures  (1979)
Website

Michael Webster Bevan OBE FRS (born 5 June 1952) [1] is a professor at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK. [5] [6] [7] [8]

Contents

Education

Bevan was educated at the University of Auckland where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science in 1973 and a Master of Science in 1974. He went on to study at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD in 1979 for work on differentiation in plant tissue cultures. [9]

Research and career

Following his PhD, Bevan did postdoctoral research with Mary-Dell Chilton at Washington University in St. Louis [10] [11] [12] [13] where he identified ways to make functional chimaeric genes based on knowledge of gene function. [5]

Bevan returned to the UK at the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge [14] [15] in 1980, part of the Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC). This became the John Innes Centre of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) where he has worked since 1988. [1]

As of 2014, Bevan's laboratory focus on the molecular control of plant growth. [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]

Awards and honours

Bevan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2013. His nomination reads:

Michael Bevan's work laid the foundations of modern day plant molecular biology and genetics. He pioneered plant transformation and expression technologies, developing the most widely used vector and gene expression systems. He played a major role in the multi-national efforts to sequence the Arabidopsis and Brachypodium genomes, which provide key foundations for plant biology. He has capitalised on this by his analyses of gene function and growth control in plants. He has recently completed the first analysis of the large, complex and important genome of bread wheat, aiming to develop resources for molecular breeding and improvement of this globally important crop. [2]

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to plant genomics. [21]

Related Research Articles

Gene duplication is a major mechanism through which new genetic material is generated during molecular evolution. It can be defined as any duplication of a region of DNA that contains a gene. Gene duplications can arise as products of several types of errors in DNA replication and repair machinery as well as through fortuitous capture by selfish genetic elements. Common sources of gene duplications include ectopic recombination, retrotransposition event, aneuploidy, polyploidy, and replication slippage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Innes Centre</span> Independent centre for research in plant and microbial science

The John Innes Centre (JIC), located in Norwich, Norfolk, England, is an independent centre for research and training in plant and microbial science founded in 1910. It is a registered charity grant-aided by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the European Research Council (ERC) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is a member of the Norwich Research Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ti plasmid</span>

A tumour inducing (Ti) plasmid is a plasmid found in pathogenic species of Agrobacterium, including A. tumefaciens, A. rhizogenes, A. rubi and A. vitis.

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

In genetics, the term synteny refers to two related concepts:

<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">Common wheat</span> Species of plant

Common wheat, also known as bread wheat, is a cultivated wheat species. About 95% of wheat produced worldwide is common wheat; it is the most widely grown of all crops and the cereal with the highest monetary yield.

<i>Brachypodium distachyon</i> Species of grass

Brachypodium distachyon, commonly called purple false brome or stiff brome, is a grass species native to southern Europe, northern Africa and southwestern Asia east to India. It is related to the major cereal grain species wheat, barley, oats, maize, rice, rye, sorghum, and millet. It has many qualities that make it an excellent model organism for functional genomics research in temperate grasses, cereals, and dedicated biofuel crops such as switchgrass. These attributes include small genome diploid accessions, a series of polyploid accessions, a small physical stature, self-fertility, a short lifecycle, simple growth requirements, and an efficient transformation system. The genome of Brachypodium distachyon has been sequenced and published in Nature in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene</span> Sequence of DNA or RNA that codes for an RNA or protein product

In biology, the word gene can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity and the molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protein-coding genes and noncoding genes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jozef Schell</span> Belgian molecular biologist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Baulcombe</span> British plant scientist and geneticist

Sir David Charles Baulcombe is a British plant scientist and geneticist. As of 2017 he is a Royal Society Research Professor. From 2007 to 2020 he was Regius Professor of Botany in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Dean</span> British botanist

Dame Caroline Dean is a British plant scientist working at the John Innes Centre. She is focused on understanding the molecular controls used by plants to seasonally judge when to flower. She is specifically interested in vernalisation — the acceleration of flowering in plants by exposure to periods of prolonged cold. She has also been on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize from 2018.

<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.

In molecular biology mir-390 microRNA is a short RNA molecule. MicroRNAs function to regulate the expression levels of other genes by several mechanisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of genetic engineering</span>

Genetic engineering is the science of manipulating genetic material of an organism. The first artificial genetic modification accomplished using biotechnology was transgenesis, the process of transferring genes from one organism to another, first accomplished by Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen in 1973. It was the result of a series of advancements in techniques that allowed the direct modification of the genome. Important advances included the discovery of restriction enzymes and DNA ligases, the ability to design plasmids and technologies like polymerase chain reaction and sequencing. Transformation of the DNA into a host organism was accomplished with the invention of biolistics, Agrobacterium-mediated recombination and microinjection. The first genetically modified animal was a mouse created in 1974 by Rudolf Jaenisch. In 1976 the technology was commercialised, with the advent of genetically modified bacteria that produced somatostatin, followed by insulin in 1978. In 1983 an antibiotic resistant gene was inserted into tobacco, leading to the first genetically engineered plant. Advances followed that allowed scientists to manipulate and add genes to a variety of different organisms and induce a range of different effects. Plants were first commercialized with virus resistant tobacco released in China in 1992. The first genetically modified food was the Flavr Savr tomato marketed in 1994. By 2010, 29 countries had planted commercialized biotech crops. In 2000 a paper published in Science introduced golden rice, the first food developed with increased nutrient value.

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Anne Elisabeth Osbourn is a professor of biology and group leader at the John Innes Centre, where she investigates plant natural product biosynthesis. She discovered that in the plant genome, the genes involved with biosynthesis organise in clusters. She is also a popular science communicator, poet and is the founder of the Science, Art and Writing (SAW) Initiative. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.

The G-value paradox arises from the lack of correlation between the number of protein-coding genes among eukaryotes and their relative biological complexity. The microscopic nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, for example, is composed of only a thousand cells but has about the same number of genes as a human. Researchers suggest resolution of the paradox may lie in mechanisms such as alternative splicing and complex gene regulation that make the genes of humans and other complex eukaryotes relatively more productive.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "BEVAN, Prof. Michael Webster" . Who's Who 2014 (online ed.). A & C Black. 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Professor Michael Bevan FRS". Royal Society.
  3. ↑ "Prizes awarded by the Human and Animal Nutrition and Crop Husbandry Fund". The Rank Prize Funds. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  4. ↑ "Genetics Society Medal 2018 – Mike Bevan". The Genetics Society.
  5. 1 2 "Q&A with Professor Mike Bevan". John Innes Centre. 24 August 2023.
  6. ↑ Michael W. Bevan's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  7. ↑ Michael W. Bevan publications indexed by Microsoft Academic
  8. ↑ Brenchley, R; Spannagl, M; et al. (2012). "Analysis of the bread wheat genome using whole-genome shotgun sequencing". Nature . 491 (7426): 705–10. Bibcode:2012Natur.491..705B. doi:10.1038/nature11650. PMC   3510651 . PMID   23192148.
  9. ↑ Bevan, Michael W (1979). Differentiation in plant tissue cultures (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.
  10. ↑ Bevan, MW; Flavell, RB; Chilton, MD (1983). "A chimaeric antibiotic resistance gene as a selectable marker for plant cell transformation". Nature . 304 (5922): 184–7. Bibcode:1983Natur.304..184B. doi:10.1038/304184a0. S2CID   28713537.
  11. ↑ Bevan, M; Barnes, WM; Chilton, MD (1983). "Structure and transcription of the nopaline synthase gene region of T-DNA". Nucleic Acids Research . 11 (2): 369–85. doi:10.1093/nar/11.2.369. PMC   325720 . PMID   6298724.
  12. ↑ Bevan, MW; Chilton, MD (1982). "Multiple transcripts of T-DNA detected in nopaline crown gall tumors". Journal of Molecular and Applied Genetics . 1 (6): 539–46. PMID   7153688.
  13. ↑ Bevan, MW; Chilton, MD (1982). "T-DNA of the Agrobacterium Ti and Ri plasmids". Annual Review of Genetics . 16: 357–84. doi:10.1146/annurev.ge.16.120182.002041. PMID   6297376.
  14. ↑ Jefferson, RA; Kavanagh, TA; Bevan, MW (1987). "GUS fusions: Beta-glucuronidase as a sensitive and versatile gene fusion marker in higher plants". The EMBO Journal . 6 (13): 3901–7. doi:10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02730.x. PMC   553867 . PMID   3327686.
  15. ↑ Bevan, M (1984). "Binary Agrobacteriumvectors for plant transformation". Nucleic Acids Research . 12 (22): 8711–21. doi:10.1093/nar/12.22.8711. PMC   320409 . PMID   6095209.
  16. ↑ Rook, F; Corke, F; et al. (2002). "Impaired sucrose-induction mutants reveal the modulation of sugar-induced starch biosynthetic gene expression by abscisic acid signalling". The Plant Journal . 26 (4): 421–33. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-313X.2001.2641043.x . PMID   11439129.
  17. ↑ Vogel, JP; Garvin, DF; et al. (2010). "Genome sequencing and analysis of the model grass Brachypodium distachyon". Nature . 463 (7282): 763–8. Bibcode:2010Natur.463..763T. doi: 10.1038/nature08747 . PMID   20148030.
  18. ↑ Baulcombe, DC; Saunders, GR; et al. (1986). "Expression of biologically active viral satellite RNA from the nuclear genome of transformed plants". Nature . 321 (6068): 446–9. Bibcode:1986Natur.321..446B. doi:10.1038/321446a0. S2CID   4309327.
  19. ↑ Sablowski, RW; Baulcombe, DC; Bevan, M (1995). "Expression of a flower-specific Myb protein in leaf cells using a viral vector causes ectopic activation of a target promoter". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 92 (15): 6901–5. Bibcode:1995PNAS...92.6901S. doi: 10.1073/pnas.92.15.6901 . PMC   41438 . PMID   7624340.
  20. ↑ "Major breakthrough in deciphering bread wheat's genetic code". John Innes Centre. 22 November 2012.
  21. ↑ "No. 62666". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 June 2019. p. B10.
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