THE 2012 GSA HONORS AND AWARDS

The 2012 Genetics Society of America Medal Joanne Chory

S a senior graduate student contemplating my postdoc- a photoreceptor, “phytochrome,” had been purified, and it Atoral options, I was struck by the paper “Arabidopsis was already clear that the transcripts of hundreds if not thaliana mutant that develops as a light-grown plant in thousands of nuclear and chloroplast genes were regulated the absence of light” (Chory et al. 1989). The temerity of by light. The system was ripe for genetic analysis. In the looking for mutant plants that developed as if in the light Ausubel laboratory, Joanne applied her expertise in bacterial when in the dark, along with the fact that this idea was only photosynthesis to develop genetic screens for Arabidopsis then being brought to fruition, was striking. The possibilities light-signaling mutants, including the de-etiolated (det) of this new model plant must be vast! The elegance of the screen for mutants that constitutively display developmental screen, the dramatic results, and the clear exposition drew programs that are light-dependent in wild type (Chory et al. me in, and I moved from yeast to Arabidopsis for my post- 1989). doctoral studies. Thus it is a particular honor for me to Joanne established her group at the Salk Institute in announce Joanne Chory, Professor and Director of the Plant 1988, where she and her colleagues have continued to Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory at the Salk In- decipher the mechanisms that plants use to respond to stitute and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, changes in their light environment. In a series of landmark as the 2012 recipient of the Genetics Society of America studies, she helped elucidate the roles of individual phyto- Medal in recognition of her many outstanding contributions chromes, the red/far-red light receptors that modulate ger- to the field of genetics. mination, development, neighbor detection, and circadian Joanne did not begin her career as a plant geneticist. responses (Chory 2010). She used the genomes uncoupled After receiving her bachelor's degree in biology from Oberlin (gun) screen to implicate chloroplast-derived products of the College in Ohio, she moved to the University of Illinois at tetrapyrrole pathway in modulating expression of nuclear Urbana-Champaign for graduate studies in microbiology. genes (Susek et al. 1993; Woodson et al. 2011), providing A student with Samuel Kaplan, she studied the morphogen- mechanistic insights into interorganellar communication. esis of photosynthetic membranes in the purple nonsulfur While taking full advantage of the experimental control photosynthetic bacterium, Rhodobacter sphaeroides.In provided by studying the reference plant in a laboratory Kaplan's laboratory, Joanne learned bacterial genetics and environment, she recognized early the power of natural var- protein biochemistry while developing an appreciation for iation as a tool to decipher the importance of various genes working in a system where phenotype can be manipulated in the plant's natural (outdoor) habitat (Maloof et al. 2001; by the investigator. As Joanne was finishing her Ph.D. work, Borevitz et al. 2002). Joanne's basic research findings on Barbara McClintock won a Nobel Prize for her work on how plants develop and grow in response to changes in maize transposons, and geneticists were beginning to stream the environment are providing the scientific underpinnings from diverse and often nonplant organisms to Arabidopsis for the increases in crop yields that will be necessary to thaliana, eager to apply the new tools of molecular biology sustain the earth's population. and transformation to a tractable plant system. One of these As a geneticist, Joanne lets the mutants lead, and she did converts was Fred Ausubel, a bacterial geneticist at Harvard not shy away when they led into uncharted waters. Her Medical School, and Joanne joined the Ausubel laboratory discovery that the Arabidopsis de-etiolated2 mutant was de- for her postdoctoral studies. She wanted to work on signal fective in biosynthesis of a brassinosteroid both uncovered transduction in plants, and in 1984, light signaling was the a new class of plant hormones and demonstrated a role one system in which both ends of the pathway were known; for these hormones in light signaling (Li et al. 1996). A screen for brassinosteroid-insensitive dwarfs uncovered an

Copyright © 2012 by the Genetics Society of America astounding 18 alleles with defects in the brassinosteroid re- doi: 10.1534/genetics.112.138404 ceptor (Li and Chory 1997), and over the ensuing 15 years,

Genetics, Vol. 191, 297–298 June 2012 297 a series of sophisticated suppressor and enhancer screens by the European Molecular Biology Organization (2006), a Joanne and her colleagues has illuminated the intricate member of the German National Academy of Sciences details of the brassinosteroid signal as it is transduced from (2008), a foreign associate of the French Académie des perception at the membrane through protein interaction, Sciences (2009), and a foreign member of the Royal Society phosphorylation, and degradation events to transcriptional (2011). Her awards include the National Academy of changes in the nucleus (Belkhadir and Chory 2006; Hothorn Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research (1994), the et al. 2011). Charles Albert Schull Award from the American Society of Joanne also has made important contributions to our Plant Biologists (1995), the L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for understanding of the essential plant hormone auxin. The Women in Science (North America 2000), and the Kumho auxin biosynthetic pathway is plagued by genetic redun- Award in Plant Molecular Biology (2004). The Genetics dancy that hampers traditional loss-of-function genetics. Society of America is pleased to add one more richly As one of the developers of activation tagging, a method deserved tribute to this long list, the 2012 GSA Medal. allowing isolation of genes on the basis of their gain-of- function phenotype (Weigel et al. 2000), her group was Literature Cited poised to use this new tool to uncover the rate-limiting Belkhadir, Y., and J. Chory, 2006 Brassinosteroid signaling: a par- enzymes in a previously unanticipated pathway of auxin adigm for steroid hormone signaling from the cell surface. Sci- biosynthesis (Zhao et al. 2001). Several years later, Joanne's ence 314: 1410–1411. group uncovered a second step in this pathway via a novel Borevitz, J. O., J. N. Maloof, J. Lutes, T. Dabi, J. L. Redfern et al., shade-avoidance screen (Tao et al. 2008), and we are now 2002 Quantitative trait loci controlling light and hormone re- tantalizingly close to having the first complete biosynthetic sponse in two accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana. Genetics 160: 683–696. pathway for auxin (Won et al. 2011), a plant hormone that Chory, J., 2010 Light signal transduction: an infinite spectrum of has been studied for well over a century. possibilities. Plant J. 61: 982–991. Joanne remembers fondly the mentoring and advice she Chory, J., C. Peto, R. Feinbaum, L. Pratt, and F. Ausubel, received as a part of the tiny Boston Arabidopsis group in 1989 Arabidopsis thaliana mutant that develops as a light- – the 1980s from Fred Ausubel and Gerry Fink, who have grown plant in the absence of light. Cell 58: 991 999. Hothorn, M., Y. Belkhadir, M. Dreux, T. Dabi, J. P. Noel et al., continued to support her throughout her career. In turn, 2011 Structural basis of steroid hormone perception by the she serves as a mentor and role model to the next generation receptor kinase BRI1. Nature 474: 467–471. of scientists. She has trained >70 students and postdocs, Li, J., and J. Chory, 1997 A putative leucine-rich repeat receptor many of whom are now faculty members around the world, kinase involved in brassinosteroid signal transduction. Cell 90: – refining and expanding projects that they started in her 929 938. Li, J., P. Nagpal, V. Vitart, T. C. Mcmorris, and J. Chory, 1996 A laboratory. role for brassinosteroids in light-dependent development of Ara- Beyond her own research (165 primary papers and 53 bidopsis. Science 272: 398–401. refereed reviews), Joanne is a tireless advocate for science in Maloof, J. N., J. O. Borevitz, T. Dabi, J. Lutes, R. B. Nehring et al., general and plant biology in particular. She was a founding, 2001 Natural variation in light sensitivity of Arabidopsis. Nat. – elected member of the North American Arabidopsis Steer- Genet. 29: 441 446. Susek,R.E.,F.M.Ausubel,andJ.Chory,1993 Signaltransduc- ing Committee, which was formed in 1992 to organize the tion mutants of Arabidopsis uncouple nuclear CAB and RBCS national Arabidopsis meeting and advise the National Science gene expression from chloroplast development. Cell 74: 787– Foundation and other agencies on community needs. Her 799. research has been supported by multiple federal funding Tao, Y., J. L. Ferrer, K. Ljung, F. Pojer, F. Hong et al., 2008 Rapid agencies, but of particular note is her appointment as an synthesis of auxin via a new tryptophan-dependent pathway is required for shade avoidance in plants. Cell 133: 164–176. investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Weigel, D., J. H. Ahn, M. A. Blazquez, J. O. Borevitz, S. K. (HHMI) in 1997, when she was the first HHMI investigator Christensen et al., 2000 Activation tagging in Arabidopsis. to use a plant as the primary organism of study. Her remark- Plant Physiol. 122: 1003–1013. able research successes, along with her effective championing Won, C., X. Shen, K. Mashiguchi, Z. Zheng, X. Dai et al., of the relevance and importance of plant biology, were 2011 Conversion of tryptophan to indole-3-acetic acid by TRYPTOPHAN AMINOTRANSFERASES OF ARABIDOPSIS and undoubtedly key elements in the recent opening of HHMI YUCCAs in Arabidopsis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 108: 18518– support to a larger group of plant scientists with the selection 18523. of the first HHMI-Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Woodson, J. D., J. M. Perez-Ruiz, and J. Chory, 2011 Heme syn- investigators in 2011. thesis by plastid ferrochelatase I regulates nuclear gene expres- – Joanne's scientific accomplishments are widely recog- sion in plants. Curr. Biol. 21: 897 903. Zhao,Y.,S.K.Christensen,C.Fankhauser,J.R.Cashman,J.D. nized: she is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Cohen et al., 2001 A role for flavin monooxygenase-like en- Sciences (1998), a member of the U. S. National Academy of zymes in auxin biosynthesis. Science 291: 306–309. Sciences (1999), a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005), an associate member of Bonnie Bartel

298 Honors and Awards