Tribute Roland Douce, 1939–2018 Jacques Joyard & Hartmut K. Lichtenthaler Photosynthesis Research Official Journal of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research ISSN 0166-8595 Photosynth Res DOI 10.1007/s11120-019-00634-9 1 23 Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Nature B.V.. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self-archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com”. 1 23 Author's personal copy Photosynthesis Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-019-00634-9 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY Tribute Roland Douce, 1939–2018 Jacques Joyard1 · Hartmut K. Lichtenthaler2 Received: 4 February 2019 / Accepted: 6 March 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019 Abstract On November 4, 2018, Roland Douce, Professor Emeritus at the University of Grenoble, France, died at the age of 79. In Grenoble, where he spent most of his scientific career, Roland Douce created a world-renowned school of plant science, studying the structure, functions, and interactions of plant organelles involved in photosynthesis, respiration, and photores- piration. His main achievements concern the chemical and functional characterization of chloroplast envelope membranes, the demonstration of the uniqueness of plant mitochondria, and the integration of metabolism within the plant cell, among manifold activities. Roland Douce devoted his whole life to science and research with passion and enthusiasm: he was a true charismatic leader. Keywords Chloroplast envelope · Glycerolipids · Lipidomics · Metabolomics · Mitochondria · Photorespiration Life and career Roland Douce started his scientific research with inves- tigations on plant cell organelles and lipids, with a main Roland Douce (Fig. 1) was born on May 18, 1939 in Saint- focus on cardiolipin. At the time, nothing was known about Maur-des-Fossés (Val-de-Marne, France). He was the sec- this phospholipid in plants. Douce demonstrated that the ond of three sons of Robert Douce, a certified accountant, compound analyzed by many groups was actually phos- and his wife Marie. He attended high school at the Lycée phatidylmethanol, an artifact produced during incubation of Marcellin Berthelot, Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, and in 1958 cells with methanol. This paved the way for the first charac- started a college degree in physics, chemistry, and biology terization of diphosphatidylglycerol as cardiolipin in plants at the well-known University “La Sorbonne,” in Paris. Hav- (Coulon-Morelec and Douce 1968)—the topic of Douce’s ing a passion for life sciences (he could recognize many bird PhD dissertation. songs), he developed a major interest in plant physiology and Just after completing his Ph.D., Roland Douce went from biochemistry. In 1961, Douce began his scientific career as 1970 to 1972 to the Johnson Research Foundation in Phila- an assistant at the Sorbonne, preparing his PhD. In 1966, just delphia as a postdoc in the group of Prof. Walter D. Bonner after his marriage to Danielle, his PhD work was interrupted Jr. (1914–1989). Bonner is known for his classic series of for 16 months as he had to perform the compulsory military papers identifying the “alternative oxidase.” In Philadelphia, service. He presented his PhD thesis in 1970 on the “Struc- Roland analyzed the activities of sucrose-purified mitochon- ture, localization and metabolism of diphosphatidylglycerol, dria from mung bean hypocotyls and potato tubers. Among or cardiolipin, in plants.” his major findings was the surprising observation of the inhi- bition of mitochondrial respiration by oxaloacetate which led him to develop a test proving the structural integrity of mitochondria (Douce et al. 1972). * Jacques Joyard After these 2 years in Pennsylvania, Roland Douce moved [email protected] to La Jolla, California, to work on the chloroplast envelope membranes with Prof. Andrew A. Benson (1917–2015), the 1 Laboratoire de Physiologie cellulaire et végétale, Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire de Grenoble, Université co-discoverer of the photosynthetic carbon reduction cycle, Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, INRA, Grenoble, France known today as Calvin–Benson cycle (Buchanan et al. 2 Botany 2 (Molecular Biology and Biochemistry of Plants), 2007; Lichtenthaler et al. 2008, 2015). At that time, Ben- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kaiserstr. 12, son was known for his research on plant glycerolipids and 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany Vol.:(0123456789)1 3 Author's personal copy Photosynthesis Research CEA and his research group became associated with CNRS (Centre national de la Recherche scientifique). His project was titled, Plastids-cytosol-mitochondria Interactions, and the group later became the Laboratoire de Physiologie cel- lulaire et végétale, a research unit of Grenoble University, CNRS, and CEA. Douce was chairman of this laboratory until 1991. He remained a Scientific Adviser. The laboratory is still active at Grenoble Alpes University, CNRS, INRA, and CEA (Eric Maréchal, a former student of Douce, is Chairman). Roland Douce found it essential to develop links between academic research and industry. In 1982, he became a Sci- entific Adviser to Rhône-Poulenc Agrochimie, and in 1986, he created the first CNRS laboratory associated with an industrial partner (initially Rhône-Poulenc Agrochimie, then Aventis Crop Science) in Lyon, France. The objective of this laboratory was to identify and describe the molecular level targets residing in chloroplasts or mitochondria for new herbicides, and it was dedicated to studies on the synthesis Fig. 1 Photograph of Roland Douce in 2014 in La Jolla, California. of amino acids and vitamins in higher plants. (Source: A. Nonomura) In the 1980s, Roland Douce also played an important role in the resurgence of the Lautaret Alpine Garden, at 2100 m elevation in the Alps. This was followed by the creation of had already detected the plant sulfolipid, which is unique a high-altitude biological research station, the Joseph Fou- for photosynthetic organisms. Starting with sucrose-puri- rier Station (https ://www.jardi nalpi ndula utare t.fr), in 1989. fied spinach chloroplasts, Douce was the first to purify and Its first two directors, Richard Bligny and Serge Aubert properly characterize the chloroplast envelope, as a whole (1966–2015), were his former students. Research at the Sta- (i.e., a mixture of the outer and inner membranes) (Douce tion was open to scientists interested in understanding how et al. 1973). This relied on the proper characterization of light energy dissipates by investigating the specificities of envelope marker enzymes, constituents (glycerolipids and photosynthesis and carbon metabolism in alpine plants. carotenoids, etc.), and functions (galactolipid biosynthesis From 1985 to 1990, Douce acted as Department Chair- and carotenoid transformations) (Jeffrey et al. 1974; Douce man at INRA. In 1992, he was appointed Member of the 1974). The biochemical and functional characterization of University Institute of France, Paris. From 1995 to 1998, he the plastid envelope (inner and outer membrane) would served as Director of Research at the École Normale Supé- determine the research of his group for almost the next rieure, Lyon, France. In 2001, he was elected as Senior Sci- 30 years. It brought him international recognition. entist at the University of Oxford, UK. From 2002 to 2004, In 1974, Roland Douce was appointed Professor at the he was the Director of the Institute for Structural Biology, University of Grenoble, France, where he stayed after his in Grenoble (Fig. 2). retirement in 2004 as Professor Emeritus. During these In addition, Douce was a regular participant and esteemed years, he established an internationally known laboratory speaker at many international meetings, such as the Inter- for plant cell physiology and biochemistry. national Congresses on Photosynthesis, the International Symposia on Plant Lipids, the ISPLs (Lichtenthaler 2004), see Fig. 3, as well as at various Gordon Conferences, and Other activities international meetings. On the 4th ISPL in 1980 held in Paris, he served as co-organizer. Roland Douce was always open to scientific discussions Roland Douce often presented his results in an unex- and cooperation to better understand the dynamics of cell pected manner with unusual comparisons. Hartmut metabolism. In addition, he served as competent Adviser, Lichtenthaler recalls, that at the 5th International Photosyn- Chairman, and Coordinator of various research programs thesis Congress in Halkidiki, Greece, in September 1980, and joined science activities. Roland started his lecture on the significance and function Douce set up a research group at the University of Gre- of the chloroplast envelope with a photo of a nice young girl, noble on the CEA (Commissariat à l’Énergie atomique) his daughter. Then he continued with: One thing I know for Campus. In 1979, he was appointed Scientific Adviser at sure, every single carbon atom in her body has twice passed 1 3 Author's personal copy Photosynthesis