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Annual Review of Plant Biology

Volume 61, 2010

A Wandering Pathway in Plant Biology: From Wildflowers to Phototropins to Bacterial Virulence

Abstract

The author describes the somewhat convoluted pathway he followed from amateur taxonomy of Minnesota wildflowers to identification of the phototropin family of blue-light receptors. He also mentions individuals who were important in moving his career first into plant taxonomy, then plant development, and finally plant photobiology (and out of music). He emphasizes the many twists and turns a research career can take, including a few that lead to blind ends. He also emphasizes the oscillatory nature of his career—back and forth between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (with occasional forays to Freiburg, Germany) and back and forth between red-light receptors and blue-light receptors. There is a short intermission in which he describes his longtime relationship with California's Henry W. Coe State Park. Finally, he relates how he followed the unlikely pathway from plant blue-light receptors to a blue-light receptor required to maximize virulence of a bacterial animal pathogen.

Keyword(s): Autobiography, morphogenesis, photomorphogenesis, phototropism, phytochrome, taxonomy
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2010-06-02
2024-05-05
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/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-arplant-042809-112326
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A Wandering Pathway in Plant Biology: From Wildflowers to Phototropins to Bacterial Virulence
Annual Review of Plant Biology 61, 1 (2010); https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-arplant-042809-112326
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-arplant-042809-112326
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-arplant-042809-112326
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Supplemental Material

In this video interview Sabeeha S. Merchant, Editor of the Annual Review of Plant Biology, and Elaine M. Tobin, Professor of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at UCLA, converse with Winslow R. Briggs about his lifelong devotion to all aspects of plant biology, from his laboratory bench discoveries of molecules to his volunteer work in the California state park system.

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  • Article Type: Review Article

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