Biochemistry

Gary Stacey

MSMC Endowed Professor of Soybean Biotechnology
Professor of Plant Sciences
Joint Professor of Biochemistry

E-mail:staceyg@missouri.edu

Office: 271E Bond Life Sciences Center

Mail: National Center for Soybean Biotechnology
271E Bond Life Sciences Center
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211

Phone: 573-884-4752

Fax: 573-884-9676

Lab site: http://www.staceylab.missouri.edu/

Educational background

Notable honors and service

• Robert A. Welch Predoctoral Fellowship, 1977-1978
• National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1979
• Research Fellowship, Alexander Von Humboldt Stiftung, 1988
• Van der Klaauw Chair of Molecular Biology, Visiting Professorship at the Univ. of Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands, 1990
• Chancellor's Award for Research and Creative Achievement, University of Tennessee, 1992
• Distinguished Researcher Award, College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, University of Missouri, 2007
• Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2008

Research description

Host-microbe interactions. The major focus of research in the Stacey lab is the symbiosis between the bacterium Bradyrhizobium japonicum and its host plant, soybean. The result of this interaction is the establishment of a novel organ, nodule, on the root of the host. Inside this organ, B. japonicum fixes atmospheric nitrogen, which the plant can utilize. Our work on this symbiosis focuses both on the symbiont and the plant host. With regard to the bacterium, we are largely focusing on functional genomics of the symbiont and the identification of key functions necessary for the symbiosis. Plant perception of lipo-chitin nodulation signals, produced by the bacterium, is essential for induction of de novo organogenesis, leading to nodule formation. Our research is focused on plant recognition of this molecule and the signal transduction pathways leading to nodule development. This work led to a general interest in plant chitin signaling and the identification of the plant receptor for chitin recognition. We are now exploring the role of this receptor and the downstream signaling pathway and how it relates to the induction of plant innate immunity.

Extracellular ATP. Our lab is one of the few in the world exploring the role of extracellular ATP as a signal in plants. Extracellular ATP is well studied in animal system where it has been shown to be involved in a variety of processes (e.g., nerve function, muscle contraction, inflammation, etc.). Our focus is on the identification of the plant receptor for eATP and understanding the downstream signaling pathway. Our data suggests that eATP is essential for normal plant growth and development. Hence, understanding the function of this important signal is key to understanding how plants grow.

Peptide transport in plants. There is a growing body of information implicating peptides as circulating hormones in plants. This is consistent with the major role that peptides play in regulating growth and development in animals. Our contribution to this area focuses on the role of peptide transporters in the growth and development of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We have identified peptide transporters in two families: PTR, which transport di- and tripeptides and OPT, which transport tetra- and pentapeptides. In both cases, disruption of peptide transporter expression (e.g., through antisense expression or mutation) results in severe defects in seed and embryo development. Our goal in this research is to define the role peptide transporters play in plant growth and development, to define their substrates and to elucidate the regulation of these interesting proteins.

Soybean genomics and biotechnology. As part of the growing family of researchers at MU who are interested in soybean biology, our laboratory is contributing to the development of soybean genomic research. The goal of this research is to identify genes and traits, which can benefit soybean agriculture. For example, our lab was a key member of the consortium that recently completed the soybean genome sequence. We are currently working on tools for mutagenesis so that we can study soybean gene function.

Selected publications

Thibivilliers S, Joshi T, Campbell KB, Scheffler B, Boerma R, Xu D, Cooper B, Nguyen HT, Stacey G (2009) EST sequencing of Phaseolus vulgaris genes responsive to Uromyces appendiculatus infection also identifies soybean genes responding to Phakopsora pachyrhizi infection. BMC Plant Biology 9:46

Govindarajulu, Manjula, Sung-Yong Kim, Marc Libault, R. Howard Berg, Kiwamu Tanaka, Gary Stacey, and Christopher G. Taylor (2009) GS52 ecto-apyrase plays a critical role during nodulation in soybean. Plant Physiology 149: 994-1004

Laurent Brechenmacher, Joohyun Lee, Sherri Sachdev, Zhao Song, Tran Hong Nha Nguyen; Joshi Trupti, Beverly Dague, Nathan Oehrle, Marc Libault, Brian Mooney, Dong Xu, Bret Cooper, and Gary Stacey (2009) Establishment of a protein reference map for soybean root hair cells. Plant Physiol. 149: 670-682

Mathieu, Melanie, Elizabeth K. Winters, Fanming Kong, Jinrong Wan, Shaoxing Wang, Helene Eckert, Christopher Donovan, David Somers, Kan Wang, Gary Stacey and Tom Clemente (2009) Establishment of a soybean (Glycine max Merr. L) transposon-based mutagenesis respository. Planta 229: 279-289

Rogers EE, X. Wu, G. Stacey, H. Nguyen (2009) Two MATE proteins play a role in iron efficiency in soybean. J. Plant Physiol. 166: 1453-1459

Zhang Juan, Senthil Subramanian, Gary Stacey, and Oliver Yu (2009) Flavones and flavanols play distinct, critical roles during nodulation of Medicago truncatula by Sinorhizobium meliloti. Plant J. 57: 171-183

Ravisha R. Weerasinghe, Sarah J. Swanson, Seiko Okada, Michele B. Garrett, Sung-Yong Kim, Gary Stacey, Richard C. Boucher, Simon Gilroy, and Alan M. Jones (2009) The resenitization-to-touch set point in Arabidopsis roots is regulated by the heterotrimeric G protein complex. FEBS Lett. 583(15):2521-2526

Xue-Cheng Zhang, Steven B. Cannon, and Gary Stacey (2009) Evolutionary genomics of LysM genes in land plants. BMC Evol. Boil. 9:183 (3 August 2009)

Navdeep Gill, Seth Findley, Jason G. Walling, Christian Hans, Jianxin Ma, Jeff Doyle, Gary Stacey, and Scott Jackson (2009) Molecular and chromosomal evidence for allopolyploidy in soybean Glycine max (L.) Merr. Plant Physiology 151: 1167-1174

Dasharath Lohar, Jiri Stiller, Jason H.W. Kam, Gary Stacey, and Peter Gresshoff. 2009. Ethylene insensitivity conferred by a mutated Arabidopsis ethylene receptor gene alters nodulation in transgenic Lotus japonicus Ann. Bot. 104: 277-285

Peter M. Gresshoff, Dasharath Lohar, Pick-Kuen Chan, Qunyi Jiang, and Gary Stacey (2009) Genetic Analysis of Ethylene Regulation of Legume Nodulation. Plant Signaling and Behaviour 4 (9): 818-823

Marc Libault, Trupti Joshi, Kaori Takahashi, Andrea Hurley-Sommer, Kari Puricelli, Sean Blake, Dong Xu, Henry Nguyen, and Gary Stacey (2009) Large scale analysis of soybean regulatory gene expression identifies a Myb gene involved in nodule development. Plant Physiol. 151: 1207-1220

Sharon Pike, Ami Patel, Gary Stacey, and Walter Gassmann (2009) Arabidopsis AtOPT6 is an oligopeptide transporter with exceptionally broad substrate specificity. Plant Cell Physiol. 50(11): 1923-32

Marc Libault, Trupti Joshi, Vagner A. Benedito, Dong Xu, Michael K. Udvardi, Gary Stacey (2009) Legume transcription factor genes; what makes legumes so special? Plant Physiol. 151: 991-1001

Trupti Joshi, Zhe Yan, Marc Libault, Hoon Jeong, Sunhee Park, Pamela J. Green, D Janine Sherrier, Andrew Farmer, Greg May, Blake Meyers, Dong Xu, Gary Stacey (2009) Prediction of novel miRNAs and associated target genes in Glycine max. BMC Bioinformatics (in press)

Schmutz J, Cannon S, Schlueter J, Ma J, Mitros T, Nelson W, Hyten D, Song Q, Thelen J, Cheng J, Xu D, Hellsten U, May G, Yu Y, Sakurai T, Umezawa T, Bhattacharyya M, Sandhu D, Valliyodan B, Lindquist E, Peto M, Grant D, Shu S, Goodstein D, Barry K, Futrell-Griggs M, Dr J, Tian Z, Zhu L, Gill N, Trupti J, Libault M, Sethuraman A, Zhang X, Shinozaki S, Nguyen H, Wing R, Cregan P, Specht J, Grimwood J, Rokhsar D, Stacey G, Shoemaker R, Jackson S (2009) Genome sequence of the paleopolyploid soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.). Nature (in press)