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Dr.
Michael Neff
.jpg) 509-335-7705
mmneff@wsu.edu
Assistant Professor/Scientist, Crop and Soil Sciences. Ph.D. 1995,
University of Washington.
Research
One project in my lab focuses on the role that a pair of Arabidopsis cytochrome
P450 enzymes, BAS1/CYP72B1/CYP734A1 and SOB7/CYP72C1, have on the
inactivation of a family of growth-promoting hormones, the brassinosteroids.
We have shown that hormone inactivation plays a role in both light-
and brassinosteroid-mediated development in plants. We have shown
that BAS1 and SOB7 interact synergistically and redundantly to
negatively regulate seedling hypocotyl and cotyledon expansion
in response to light, as well as the size of adult plants and fruits.
Our future focus will be on understanding the similarities and
differences between the biochemistries of BAS1 and SOB7, exploring
which pathways regulate these P450s and characterizing interactions
with other brassinosteroid-inactivation pathways.
A second project
in my lab focuses on the role that a Dof-class transcription factor,
SOB1/OBP3, has on modulating seedling and adult plant stature in
various tissues and light conditions. We have shown that SOB1 negatively
regulates seedling hypocotyl and cotyledon expansion in response
to light, acting through different photoreceptors in each tissue.
SOB1 also represses the growth of adult plants. Our future focus
will be to examine whether SOB1 is involved in hormone signaling,
to address the possibility that related proteins are functional
homologues of SOB1, and to identify which genes regulate and are
regulated by this transcription factor.
A
third project in my lab focuses on characterizing a pair of AT-hook-domain
containing DNA-binding proteins, SOB3 and ESC, and the role that
they have in modulating seedling responsiveness to light. We have
shown that these two proteins act redundantly in light-mediated
inhibition of hypocotyl elongation. We have also shown that the
over-expression of SOB3 delays senescence and increases leaf biomass,
stem thickness and flower size. Our future focus will be to uncover
the mechanisms by which these and other AT-hook-domain containing
proteins regulate plant development.
A fourth project in my lab
focuses on characterizing a small family of plant-specific proteins
related to SOB5 and the role that they have in modulating levels
of the plant hormones, cytokinins. The SOB5-like (SOFL) family
of proteins has not been previously characterized and has no homology
to proteins or domains of known function. We have shown that the
overexpression of SOB5, SOFL1 and SOFL2 confers an increase in
the levels of specific cytokinins while delaying leaf senescence.
Our future focus will be to uncover the biochemical action of this
family of proteins and how they link cytokinin- and light-mediated
plant development.
Selected
Publications
Chen H, Zhang J, Neff MM, Hong S-W, Deng XW and Xiong L (2008)
Integration of light and abscisic acid signaling during seed germination
and early seedling development. Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences USA (in press).
Street IH, Shah PK, Smith AM, Avery N, and Neff MM (2008) The
AT-Hook Containing Proteins SOB3/AHL29 and ESC/AHL27 are Negative
Modulators of Hypocotyl Growth in Arabidopsis. Plant Journal doi:10..1111/j.1365-313X.2007.03393.
Nemri A, Neff MM, Burrell M, Jones JDG and Studholme DJ (2007)
Marker development for the genetic study of natural variation in
Arabidopsis thaliana. Bioinformatics 23:3108-3109.
Zhang
J, Wrage EL, Vankova R, Malbeck J, and Neff MM. 2006. Overexpression
of SOB5 suggests the involvement of a novel plant protein in
cytokinin-mediated development. Plant Journal 46:834-848.
Neff
MM, Street IH, Turk EM, Ward JM. 2006. Chapter 21: Interaction
of light and hormone signalling to mediate photomorphogenesis
In E. Schäfer, F. Nagy, eds, Photomorphogenesis in Plants
and Bacteria 3rd Ed., 439-473. Springer, Netherlands.
Ward
JM, Smith AM, Shah PK, Gallanti SE, Yi H, Demianski AJ, van der
Graaff E, Keller
B
and Neff MM. 2006. A new role for the AP2 transcription factor,
LEP, in gibberellin-induced germination is revealed by the mis-expression
of a homologous gene, SOB2/DRN-like. Plant Cell 18:29-39.
Turk
EM, Fujioka S, Seto H, Shimada Y, Takatsuto S, Yoshida S, Wang
H, Torres QI, Ward JM, Murthy G, Zhang J, Walker JC and Neff
MM. 2005. BAS1 and SOB7 act redundantly to modulate Arabidopsis photomorphogenesis
via unique brassinosteroid inactivation mechanisms. Plant Journal 42:23-34.
Ward
JM, Cufr CA, Denzel MA and Neff MM. 2005. The Dof transcription
factor, OBP3, modulates phytochrome and cryptochrome signaling
in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 17:475-485.
Turk
EM, Fujioka S, Seto H, Shimada Y, Takatsuto S, Yoshida S, Denzel
MA, Torres QI and Neff MM. 2003. CYP72B1 inactivates brassinosteroid
hormones: An intersection between photomorphogenesis and plant
steroid signal transduction. Plant Physiology, 133:1643-1653.
Neff
MM, Turk E and Kalishman M. 2002. Web-based primer design for
single nucleotide polymorphism analysis. Trends in Genetics 18:613-615.
Weigel
D, Ahn JH, Blázquez MA, Borevitz J, Christensen SK, Fankhauser
C, Ferrándiz C, Kardailsky I, Malancharuvil EJ, Neff MM,
Nguyen JT, Sato S, Wang Z, Xia Y, Dixon RA, Harrison MJ, Lamb
CJ, Yanofsky MF and Chory J. 2000. Activation tagging in Arabidopsis.
Plant Physiology 122:1003-1013.
Neff
MM, Fankhauser C and Chory J. 2000. Light: An indicator of time
and place. Genes and Development 14:257-271.
Neff
MM, Nguyen SM, Malancharuvil EJ, Fujioka S, Noguchi T, Seto H,
Tsubuki M, Honda T, Takatsuto S, Yoshida S and Chory J. 1999.
BAS1: A gene regulating brassinosteroid levels and light responsiveness
in Arabidopsis. Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences USA 96:15316-15323.
Neff
MM and Chory J. 1998. Genetic interactions between phytochrome
A, phytochrome B and cryptochrome 1 during Arabidopsis development. Plant
Physiology 118:27-36.
Neff
MM, Neff JD, Chory J and Pepper AE. 1998. dCAPS, a simple technique
for the genetic analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms:
Experimental applications in Arabidopsis thaliana genetics.
Plant Journal 14:387-392.
Chory
J, Chatterjee M, Cook RK, Elich T, Fankhauser C, Li J, Nagpal
P, Neff MM, Pepper A, Poole D, Reed J and Vitart V. 1996. From
seed germination to flowering, light controls plant development
via the pigment phytochrome. Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences USA 93:12066-12071.
Blum
DE, Neff MM and Van Volkenburgh E. 1994. Light-stimulated cotyledon
expansion in the blu3 and hy4 mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant
Physiology 105:1433-1436.
Neff
MM and Van Volkenburgh E. 1994. Light-stimulated cotyledon expansion
in Arabidopsis seedlings: The role of phytochrome B.
Plant Physiology 104:1027-1032.
Geiser
JR, van Tuinen D, Brockerhoff SE, Neff MM and Davis TN (1991)
Can calmodulin function without binding calcium? Cell 65:949-959.
PATENTS:
#6,534,313 “Genetically
modified plants having modulated brassinosteroid signaling” Inventors:
Michael M. Neff and Joanne Chory. Owner: The Salk Institute for
Biological Studies. Awarded: 3/18/03.
#7,265,264 “The
gene for a Dof transcription factor capable of altering the size
and stature of a plant” Inventor: Michael M. Neff. Owner:
Washington University. Awarded: 9/4/07
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