N. Louise Glass

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N. Louise Glass
Alma mater University of California, Davis, USA
Scientific career
Institutions University of California, Berkeley, USA
Thesis  (1986)

N. Louise Glass is the Fred E. Dickinson Chair of Wood Science and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley. She specialises in plant and microbial biology, particularly fungal cell biology and genetics

Contents

Education

Glass gained her Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University of California, Davis in 1986. [1]

Career

Her career and research has been in fungal cell biology and genetics and how these can be applied to biofuels and biotechnology.

After graduation she worked with Robert Metzenberg on fungal genetics and molecular biology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. [2] In 1989 Glass was appointed as an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia Biotechnology Laboratory where she worked on genetic and molecular analyses of mating type, nonself recognition and programmed cell death in filamentous fungi. In 1999 she was recruited to the Plant and Microbial Biology Department at University of California, Berkeley, where she holds the UCB Fred E. Dickinson Chair of Wood Science and Technology. [3]

Her research areas continue to include the sensing and response to carbon sources by fungi, which has applications in the production of biofuels through the use of fungi to degrade plant cell walls to bioethanol. She has also studied self-recognition in fungi, the way in which fungi can recognise self and non-self hyphae. [4]

Awards

In March 2019 she was awarded the Robert L. Metzenberg Award in Fungal Genetics by the Neurospora research community. [2] In 2021 she was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. [5]

Glass is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from 2005, elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2010 and elected as a fellow of the Mycological Society of America in 2017. [1]

In 2021, she was elected member of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences. [6]

Publications

Glass is the author or co-author of at least 150 scientific papers, book chapters and patents. These include:

Related Research Articles

Ascomycota Division or phylum of fungi

Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The defining feature of this fungal group is the "ascus", a microscopic sexual structure in which nonmotile spores, called ascospores, are formed. However, some species of the Ascomycota are asexual, meaning that they do not have a sexual cycle and thus do not form asci or ascospores. Familiar examples of sac fungi include morels, truffles, brewer's yeast and baker's yeast, dead man's fingers, and cup fungi. The fungal symbionts in the majority of lichens such as Cladonia belong to the Ascomycota.

<i>Neurospora crassa</i> Species of ascomycete fungus in the family Sordariaceae

Neurospora crassa is a type of red bread mold of the phylum Ascomycota. The genus name, meaning "nerve spore" in Greek, refers to the characteristic striations on the spores. The first published account of this fungus was from an infestation of French bakeries in 1843.

Heterokaryon

A heterokaryon is a multinucleate cell that contains genetically different nuclei. Heterokaryotic and heterokaryosis are derived terms. This is a special type of syncytium. This can occur naturally, such as in the mycelium of fungi during sexual reproduction, or artificially as formed by the experimental fusion of two genetically different cells, as e.g., in hybridoma technology.

<i>Neurospora</i> Genus of fungi

Neurospora is a genus of Ascomycete fungi. The genus name, meaning "nerve spore" refers to the characteristic striations on the spores that resemble axons.

Mating in fungi Combination of genetic material between compatible mating types

Mating in fungi is a complex process governed by mating types. Research on fungal mating has focused on several model species with different behaviour. Not all fungi reproduce sexually and many that do are isogamous; thus, the terms "male" and "female" do not apply to many members of the fungal kingdom. Homothallic species are able to mate with themselves, while in heterothallic species only isolates of opposite mating types can mate.

John Robert Stanley Fincham FRS FRSE was a noted British geneticist who made important contributions to biochemical genetics and microbial genetics.

Microbial genetics is a subject area within microbiology and genetic engineering. Microbial genetics studies microorganisms for different purposes. The microorganisms that are observed are bacteria, and archaea. Some fungi and protozoa are also subjects used to study in this field. The studies of microorganisms involve studies of genotype and expression system. Genotypes are the inherited compositions of an organism. Genetic Engineering is a field of work and study within microbial genetics. The usage of recombinant DNA technology is a process of this work. The process involves creating recombinant DNA molecules through manipulating a DNA sequence. That DNA created is then in contact with a host organism. Cloning is also an example of genetic engineering.

Mating types are molecular mechanisms that regulate compatibility in sexually reproducing eukaryotes. They occur in isogamous and anisogamous species. Depending on the group, different mating types are often referred to by numbers, letters, or simply "+" and "−" instead of "male" and "female", that refer to "sexes" or differences in size between gametes. Syngamy can only take place between gametes carrying different mating types.

David Perkins (geneticist) American geneticist

David Dexter Perkins was an American geneticist, a member of the faculty of the Department of Biology at Stanford University for more than 58 years, from 1948 until his death in 2007. He received his PhD in Zoology in 1949 from Columbia University. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he served as President of the Genetics Society of America in 1977. In a scientific career that spanned more than six decades, Perkins collaborated on more than 300 papers. His associates included many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who went on to scientific careers throughout the world.

The Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) is an organization dedicated to developing new sources of energy and reducing the impact of energy consumption. It was created in 2007 to apply advanced knowledge of biology to the challenges of responsible, sustainable energy production and use. Its main goal is to develop next-generation biofuels—that is, biofuels that are made from the non-edible parts of plants and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Robert Lee Metzenberg was an American geneticist known for his work on genetic regulation and metabolism with Neurospora crassa.

Fungus Biological kingdom, separate from plants and animals

A fungus is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from the other eukaryotic kingdoms, those being Plantae, Animalia, Protozoa, and Chromista.

The frequency (frq) gene encodes the protein frequency (FRQ) that functions in the Neurospora crassa circadian clock. The FRQ protein plays a key role in circadian oscillator, serving to nucleate the negative element complex in the auto regulatory transcription-translation negative feedback-loop (TTFL) that is responsible for circadian rhythms in N. crassa. Similar rhythms are found in mammals, Drosophila and cyanobacteria. Recently, FRQ homologs have been identified in several other species of fungi. Expression of frq is controlled by the two transcription factors white collar-1 (WC-1) and white collar-2 (WC-2) that act together as the White Collar Complex (WCC) and serve as the positive element in the TTFL. Expression of frq can also be induced through light exposure in a WCC dependent manner. Forward genetics has generated many alleles of frq resulting in strains whose circadian clocks vary in period length.

Fungal extracellular enzyme activity Enzymes produced by fungi and secreted outside their cells

Extracellular enzymes or exoenzymes are synthesized inside the cell and then secreted outside the cell, where their function is to break down complex macromolecules into smaller units to be taken up by the cell for growth and assimilation. These enzymes degrade complex organic matter such as cellulose and hemicellulose into simple sugars that enzyme-producing organisms use as a source of carbon, energy, and nutrients. Grouped as hydrolases, lyases, oxidoreductases and transferases, these extracellular enzymes control soil enzyme activity through efficient degradation of biopolymers.

Branches of microbiology

The branches of microbiology can be classified into pure and applied sciences. Microbiology can be also classified based on taxonomy, in the cases of bacteriology, mycology, protozoology, and phycology. There is considerable overlap between the specific branches of microbiology with each other and with other disciplines, and certain aspects of these branches can extend beyond the traditional scope of microbiology In general the field of microbiology can be divided in the more fundamental branch and the applied microbiology (biotechnology). In the more fundamental field the organisms are studied as the subject itself on a deeper (theoretical) level. Applied microbiology refers to the fields where the micro-organisms are applied in certain processes such as brewing or fermentation. The organisms itself are often not studied as such, but applied to sustain certain processes.

John W. Taylor (professor) American scientist (born 1950)

John Waldo Taylor is an American scientist who researches fungal evolution and ecology. He is Professor of the Graduate School in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jay Dunlap is an American chronobiologist and photobiologist who has made significant contributions to the field of chronobiology by investigating the underlying mechanisms of circadian systems in Neurospora, a fungus commonly used as a model organism in biology, and in mice and mammalian cell culture models. Major contributions by Jay Dunlap include his work investigating the role of frq and wc clock genes in circadian rhythmicity, and his leadership in coordinating the whole genome knockout collection for Neurospora. He is currently the Nathan Smith Professor of Molecular and Systems Biology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He and his colleague Jennifer Loros have mentored numerous students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom presently hold positions at various academic institutions.

Joseph Heitman

Joseph Heitman is an American physician-scientist focused on research in genetics, microbiology, and infectious diseases. He is the James B. Duke Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University School of Medicine.

Vera Meyer

Vera Meyer is a German biotechnologist and professor at the Technical University of Berlin. She is the head of the department for Applied and Molecular Microbiology.

Brian John Staskawicz ForMemRS is Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley and scientific director of agricultural genomics at the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI).

References

  1. 1 2 "Faculty Profiles - Glass". University of California, Berkeley, Plant and Microbial Biology. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Louise Glass Receives Metzenberg Award". Berkeley Lab Biosciences. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  3. "N. Louise Glass". Berkerley Research - University of California. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  4. "The Glass Laboratory". University of California, Berkeley.
  5. "National Academy of Sciences Elects New Members — Including a Record Number of Women — and International Members". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  6. "News from the National Academy of Sciences". 26 April 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021. Newly elected members and their affiliations at the time of election are: ... Glass, N. Louise; professor and chair, department of plant and microbial biology, University of California, Berkeley