email: c.d.knight@leeds.ac.uk
Plant
Developmental Biology
I am
interested in plant development, particularly at the
level of the cell and the relatively simple decisions
that the cell makes. For most of my career I have studied
development in the moss Physcomitrella
patens
because it has simple cell structures and yet these
respond to light, gravity and hormones as angiosperms
do. I have published on gravitropism and jointly published
the first report of stable transformation of
P. patens
in 1991. I co-ran the BBSRC-funded Physcomitrella EST
Programme (PEP) from 1999-2002, being responsible for
the transformation and training service involving 5
international training workshops on moss techniques.
PEP was part of an international effort which has resulted
in the complete sequencing of the Physcomitrella
genome (published in Science 2008) as the first non-angiosperm
land plant. I am lead editor on the first book on Physcomitrella
patens which will be published by Wiley-Blackwell
in July 2009 as part of the Annual Plant Review series.
I am also interested in the ways that plants and microbes
produce and perceive chemical signals, having previously
worked and published on Rhizobium spp. nodulation and
cyanobacterial chemotaxis.
Research
vs Teaching
I am
committed to developing ways to inspire and inform students
about biology from within active research environments.
In 2004 I won a national competition funded by the Gatsby
Charitable Foundation to develop an annual summer school
for high-achieving undergraduates from UK Universities
as well as developing a web-based teaching resource
for lecturers. The Gatsby
Plants
project has now received continued
funding until 2011. As part of a University teaching
fellowship I developed an undergraduate e-journal (Biolog-
e ) to showcase and reward undergraduate research,
which led to the creation of Bioscience Horizons in
2008, the first national journal for undergraduate bioscience
to be published by the professional publishers Oxford
University Press. I chair the editorial board of Bioscience
Horizons.
Bioscience Horizons was awarded a highly commended certificate
for publishing innovation in 2008 by the Association
of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP).
Selected
Publications
Lee KJD, Sakata Y, Mau S-L, Pettolino
F, Bacic A, Quatrano RS, Knight CD, Knox JP (2005)
Arabinogalactan-proteins are required for apical cell
extension in the moss Physcomitrella patens.
Plant Cell 17, 3051-3065
The
Moss Physcomitrella patens . Editors, Knight
C.D., Perroud P-F and Cove D.J. Annual Plant Reviews.
In press
Links
www.gatsbyplants.leeds.ac.uk
www.biolog-e.leeds.ac.uk
http://biohorizons.oxfordjournals.org/
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=403119story
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