Open Lectures
View or recommend open access research lectures to your students as further information on a plant science topic.
These open access research lectures were delivered at the Gatsby Plant Science Summer Schools by leading plant scientists about their research. The talks are deliberately pitched at a level to engage undergraduate students. The research lectures cover a broad range of cutting-edge plant science research that address globally relevant applied initiatives as well as curiosity-driven research. These online research lectures have proved popular with undergraduates. More lectures can be viewed through the Plant Science TREE
Translation of Educational Resources. We are currently working in partnership with the Global Plant Council and plant science volunteers to translate undergraduate research lectures that are curently available in English into other langauges, so as to widen their global reach.
Italian, Spanish and Portuguese transcripts are now available for selected lectures . To download translated transcripts please select the relevant lecture below and click on the flag.
Summer School lecture by Dr Sandra Knapp
Dr Sandra Knapp, Natural History Museum Abstract: Plants are the basis for all of life on Earth – they provide the air we breathe and sustain the ecosystems upon which we depend. But just how many species do we share planet Earth with? By far the vast majority of species are insects or microscopic organisms, so it is often thought that we know all about the species of plants, how many there are, what they are and what their names are. Although today we think we have a pretty good handle on how many plant species there are – about a quarter of a million more or less – plant scientists discover some 2000 more species each year in vascular plants alone. I will discuss how we assess our state of knowledge about plants, where new plants come from, and how taxonomists (people like me) decide if something is really new or not. Discovering a plant new to science is an amazing experience; I will describe some of the species I have discovered, how I knew they were new, and to what use I and other colleagues put information to use after the discovery. We know a lot less about the world than we think! Speaker Profile: Sandra Knapp is a plant taxonomist specialising on the nightshade family, Solanaceae, and has spent much time in the field in Central and South America collecting plants. She came to the Natural History Museum, London, in 1992 to manage the international project Flora Mesoamericana - a synoptic inventory of the approximately 18,000 species of plants of southern Mexico and the isthmus of Central America. She is also the author of several popular books on the history of science and botanical exploration, including the award-winning Potted Histories (2004). She is the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers and actively involved in promoting the role of taxonomy worldwide. Sandy is an elected member of the councils of Fauna and Flora International, the Linnean Society of London, the Organization Pro-Flora Neotropica, the International Association of Plant Taxonomy and the Tropical Biology Association and she is on the editorial board of several journals. In 2009 she was honoured by the Peter Raven Outreach Award by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists and the UK National Biodiversity Network’s John Burnett Medal. |
Summer School lecture by Prof David Beerling
Prof David Beerling, University of Sheffield. Abstract: The appearance of stomata in the fossil record some 410 million years marked the arrival of a new mode of plant life – one able to regulate water loss by transpiration during photosynthetic CO2 uptake and, therefore, better able to exploit the nutrient and water holding capacity of early soils. It saw the rise of the sporophyte-dominant lifecycle in the Palaeozoic that fundamentally changed the ecology and climate of the planet. In this lecture, I will draw on palaeontological and experimental evidence to discuss emerging ideas concerning the co-evolution of stomata and atmospheric CO2 over millions of years, and consider complementary findings from molecular biology that are shedding light on the evolution of stomatal function. Speaker Profile: Professor David Beerling is in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield. He has over 15 years experience of leading a successful international research group addressing fundamental questions concerning the co-evolution of plant life and the environment over the Phanerozoic (past 540 million years), with pioneering integrated experimental, geochemical and Earth system modelling approaches. He holds a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit award (2009) and was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize (2001) in recognition of world-class research achievements. He has published >150 papers and authored the acclaimed popular science book The Emerald Planet (OUP, 2007). Last year he served as the Bass Distinguished Environmental Scholar at Yale University (2008-2009).
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Summer School lecture by Prof Julian Ma
Prof Julian Ma, St George’s Hospital, London Speaker Profile: Julian Ma studied dentistry at University, but almost immediately embarked on a career in immunology and research. He currently holds the Hotung Chair for Molecular Immunology at St. George's, University of London. His research training started on a project to develop a vaccine against tooth decay. Although successful, the technical difficulties to produce the vaccine at a large enough scale prompted a move into plant biotechnology research in San Diego, when the field of genetic modification of plants was just starting. Since then, he has returned to the UK and established his own research group, initially at Guy's Hospital, London and now at St. George’s. |
Summer School lecture by Prof Simon McQueen-Mason
Prof Simon McQueen-Mason, University of York.
Abstract: Humanity faces a dilemma: how to escape our dependency on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions without further exacerbating the environmental impacts of agriculture. This issue faces us all, not only because GHG emissions that are produced locally have global impacts, but also because we now operate in a globalised economy, where commodities such as biofuels are traded on the world stage. The problem for first generation bioethanol produced in temperate regions, such as Europe, is the dependence on high-input agriculture to produce the feedstock for fermentation. Not only does this lead to a relatively poor overall GHG footprint, but it also leads to competition between food and fuels. In Europe, it is clear that sustainable biofuel production will require the use of high yielding, low input biomass crops as feedstock, or waste biomass from other processes. Plant biomass (sometimes referred to as lignocellulose) is one of the greatest untapped reserves on the planet and is mostly comprised of cell walls that are composed of energy rich polymers. Polysaccharides make up approx 75% of plant biomass and as polymers of sugars; they can be depolymerised to produce substrates for fermentation, and subsequent bioethanol production. The production of sustainable biofuels from biomass requires the efficient conversion of lignocellulose into sugars that can be fermented to produce liquid fuels. Lignocellulose is a highly recalcitrant material that has evolved for strength and durability. The cost effective conversion of lignocellulose into sugars represents the greatest technical challenge to realising sustainable biofuel production. In this talk I will discuss the underpinning research required to allow effective biofuel production from plant biomass, and describe a number of research programmes aimed at improving plant cell wall digestibility, and identifying new enzymes for cell wall saccharification. I will end up briefly examining the concept of a biorefinery in which a range of valuable industrial products are generated from a single feedstock; in this case plant biomass. Speaker Profile: Simon McQueen-Mason left school at 17, and worked in boat yards in Southern California, before returning to the UK as a professional fisherman, eventually owning his own boat. At 26 he returned to education, obtaining a 1st class honours degree in Biological Sciences from Portsmouth Polytechnic. He received a PhD in Plant Physiology from the Pennsylvania State University in 1993, and returned to the UK to take up a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at The University of York in 1994. In 2001 he became Chair of Material Biology in the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, at York. His research has been focussed towards understanding aspects of plant cell wall biosynthesis, composition, and the mechanisms of wall extension during cell growth. More recently his interest has moved towards the potential use of plant biomass (which is mostly cell walls) as a source of liquid transportation fuels. Simon is currently coordinating a large research consortium involving labs in Europe and the USA, which aims to improve agricultural feedstocks for biofuel and biorefinery applications, and directing an enzyme discovery programme exploring the marine environment for new biotechnological tools. |
Summer School lecture by Prof George Lomonossoff
Prof George Lomonossoff, John Innes Centre (JIC) Abstract: Plant viruses are usually associated with causing diseases of agricultural importance. For example, Rice tungro disease, which caused by infection with two viruses is one of the most destructive rice diseases in Southeast Asia with outbreaks affecting thousands of hectares. However, they are not all bad as some viruses cause the effects which give ornamental plants their value. A dramatic example of this is the infection of tulips by a potyvirus which gave rise to the economic bubble known as “Tulipomania” in The Netherlands when virus-infected varieties fetched fabulous prices. This finally burst in 1637, ruining many traders. My research has concentrated on modern ways in which plant viruses can be used. I have particularly concentrated on RNA-containing plant virus, Cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV), for this work. The protein shells of this virus have a beautifully ordered structure which can be genetically or chemically modified for use in bio- and nano-technology. Furthermore the particles can be used to encapsidate lengths of foreign RNA which are thereby protected from degradation and which can be used as diagnostic reagents in PCR-based assays. The genomic RNA within the particles is capable of being efficiently translated within infected cells. We have made use of this feature to design vectors for the high-level transient expression of foreign proteins in plants, bringing “molecular pharming” a step closer to becoming a practical reality. Speaker Profile: George Lomonossoff is a Project Leader in the Dept. of Biological Chemistry at the John Innes Centre (JIC), Norwich, UK. He studied for his Ph.D. at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge before moving to JIC in 1980 where he has remained ever since! He has, however, escaped on sabbatical on two occasions: in 1987-1988 when he was a Fulbright scholar at Cornell University, USA and in 1998 when he was a Visiting Investigator at The Scripps Research Institute, also in the USA. George’s career has centred on the molecular biology of RNA-containing plant viruses. In the 1980s his work mainly involved in the determination the genome structures of several of these types of viruses, the development of methods for their genetic manipulation and the analysis of the 3-dimensional structures of virus particles. In the early 1990s, his attention shifted to how this knowledge could be exploited for biotechnological uses such as the development of novel pharmaceuticals and diagnostic reagents. He has been involved in several international projects in this regard and is currently the coordinator of the joint EU-Russia collaboration “PLAPROVA” aimed at producing vaccines in plants. |
Summer School lecture by Prof. James Barber
Can We Build an Artificial Leaf to Efficiently Capture and Use Solar Energy? Speaker Profile: Professor James Barber graduated in Chemistry from the University of Wales and is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a registered Chartered Chemist. He joined the Academic Staff of Imperial College in 1968 after completing a post-doctoral fellowship as the Unilever European Fellow at the State University of Leiden in The Netherlands. At Imperial College, in 1974 he was made a Reader and promoted to a full Professorship in 1979. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of Stockholm University and elected a member of the European Academy 'Academia Europaea' (1989). He has been Dean of the Royal College of Science at Imperial College and was Head of the Biochemistry Department for 10 years (1989-1999). He occupies the Chair named after the Nobel Laureate Ernst Chain (co-discoverer of Penicillin). He has published over 600 original research papers and reviews in the field of plant biochemistry, editing 16 specialised books, and was awarded the prestigious Flintoff Medal by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2002. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2003 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2005 and has recently been awarded the 2005 Italgas Prize for Energy and the Environment, 2006 Biochemical Society Novartis Medal and Prize and the 2007 Wheland Medal and Prize from the University of Chicago. He is frequently requested to give lectures both in the UK and overseas and recently delivered the Arnon Lecture at UC Berkeley. He has recently been elected President of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research. The core of his research has been to investigate photosynthesis and the functional role of the photosystems with emphasis on their structures. Much of his work has focused on Photosystem Two, a remarkable biological machine able to use light energy to split water into oxygen and reducing equivalents, a reaction upon which we are all dependent. Further Reading [1] AK.N. Ferreira, T.M. Iverson, K. Maghlaoui, J. Barber, S. Iwata, Architecture of the photosynthetic oxygen-evolving center, Science 303 (2004) 1831-1838. [2] A. Zouni, H.T. Witt, J. Kern, P. Fromme, N. Krauß, W. Saenger, P. Orth, Crystal structure of photosystem II from Synechococcus elongatus at 3.8 Å resolution, Nature 409 (2001) 739-743. |
Summer School lecture by Prof Bob Goldberg
Prof Bob Goldberg, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Super Plants for the 21st Century. Summer School Lecture 2006. Abstract: Approximately 10.5 billion people will inhabit the earth by the year 2050. To feed this population, we will need to grow more food on an ever-shrinking amount of land suitable for agriculture. Bob Goldberg discusses how modern tools of genetic engineering are an extension of what mankind has been doing for thousands of years in order to produce nutritionally-balanced and abundant food for its growing population. |
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