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Eric D. Brenner
Assistant Curator, New York Botanical Garden
Ph.D, University of California
Davis, CA (1998)
"Resistance to Nematodes in Roots"
Expertise: Genomics, Molecular Genetics, Physiology, Biochemistry, Development
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Profile |
I have two areas of research: The first studies the origin of seeds. The second attempts to elucidate the function of genes in plants with similarity to mammalian neural receptors. These two seemingly distinct areas of research overlap in surprising ways as described below. 1) My first area of research concerns the origin of seeds. My approach uses a combination of genomics and molecular biology to study the "living fossils" cycads and ginkgo. These plants rest at the basal node of the gymnosperm phylogenetic tree. Morphologically, both cycads and ginkgo have remained virtually unchanged for over 300 million years. Among the cycads, one genus, Cycas, has a combination of ancestral characteristics which resemble the original seed plants--the seed ferns. In particular, the Cycas female reproductive axis, otherwise known as a sporophyll, resembles the earliest seed plants-the spermatophytes-or seed ferns, where seeds are borne directly on fertile leaves. Consequently, it is believed that the seed originated. We are using evolutionary developmental genetics, as well as genomics, to study the genes that are activated during initiation of reproductive structures in cycads and ginkgo and to determine whether these genes correspond with those involved in development of reproductive structures in both lower and higher plants. Currently I am the coordinator of The New York Area Plant Genomics Consortium. The consortium consists of The New York Botanical Garden, New York University, Cold Spring Harbor Labs, and The American Museum of Natural History. Our goal is to bring together the fields of Botany, Evolution, Molecular Biology and Genomics to answer important questions in Plant Biology which have remained heretofore cryptic. 2) My second area of research studies the role of genes with homology to glutamate receptors in plants. In animals, glutamate receptors are ligand-gated ion channels that transmit electrochemical signals between neurons. Transmitted signals vary from sight to memory. In plants, there is evidence that glutamate receptors are possibly involved in light directed growth responses. Interestingly, plants also produce compounds that act as agonists (activators) of animal glutamate receptors. One of these compounds, called BMAA, is derived from cycads and is the suspected causative agent of the neurological disorder called, Guam's Dementia. I have shown that BMAA not only effects animals, but also drastically effects the growth and development of Arabidopsis seedlings. Arabidopsis seedlings treated with BMAA appear to be inhibited in normal light directed development (photomorphogenesis). Potentially BMAA could be inhibiting light and/or growth response signals in Arabidopsis. To define this pathway, I have isolated Arabidopsis seedlings which do not respond to BMAA and I am currently in the process of cloning and studying these mutants.
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Selected Publications |
Brenner E.D, Martinez-Barboza N, Clark, A.P., Liang, Q. (2000) Arabidopsis mutants resistant to BMAA, a cycad-derived glutamate receptor agonist. Plant Physiology. 124: 1615-1624.
Oliveira I.C., Brenner E. D., Chiu J, Hsieh M-H, Kouranov A, Lam M-H, Shin MJ, Coruzzi G (2001) Metabolite and light regulation of metabolism in plants: lessons from the study of a single biochemical pathway. Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research. 34: 567-575.
Chui, J.C.., Brenner, E.D, Nitaback, N.M. DeSalle, R., Holmes, T.C., Coruzzi, G.M. (2002) Phylogeny and expression character mapping define three distinct classes of glutamate receptor genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 19:(7) 1077-1082.
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Brenner CV