Alice Barkan

Alice Barkan is an American molecular biologist and a professor of biology at the University of Oregon. She is known for her work on chloroplast gene regulation and protein synthesis.

Alice Barkan
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Wisconsin
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Oregon
Doctoral advisorJanet E. Mertz[1]

Education

Alice Barkan received her B.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1983 she completed her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin under the supervision of Janet E. Mertz, with the thesis "Characterization of Simian Virus 40 Late Leader Region Mutants".[2][3][4]

Career

Barkan joined the University of Oregon in 1991, where she is currently a Professor in the Institute of Molecular Biology.[5]

Barkan was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2017.[6]

In 2018, Barkan received the Lawrence Bogorad Award for Excellence in Plant Biology Research from the American Society of Plant Biologists.

Barkan was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020.[7]

Research

Barkan's research is focused on how nucleus-encoded proteins affect chloroplast gene expression.[8][9][10] Experiments from her lab use mutants, primarily in maize (Zea mays) but also Arabidopsis thaliana, to investigate chloroplast mRNA translation and stability, as well as many aspects of RNA maturation, including splicing and editing.[11][12][13] Barkan and her colleagues have discovered and studied dozens of plant nuclear genes that encode chloroplast RNA binding proteins that directly affect multiple aspects of RNA metabolism (processing, splicing, translation, stability).[14] The majority of the nucleus-encoded proteins that Barkan has characterized contain pentatricopeptide repeats (PPR).[15] Barkan has also discovered and named the CRM (chloroplast RNA splicing and ribosome maturation) domain, which is found in nucleus-encoded proteins required for chloroplast RNA splicing.[16][17] In 2019, Barkan and colleagues successfully constructed PPR proteins that bound specific RNA sequences in vivo, thus establishing a system for creating targeted protein-RNA interactions.[18][19]

Personal life

Barkan is a founding member of the musical group Byrdsong Renaissance Consort, with whom she plays the viol and recorder.[20]

gollark: I imagine HashLife works for 3D, roughly.
gollark: Sad.
gollark: ++search Conway cubes 10 dimensions advent of code
gollark: I think there are some relevant things about surface area and volume.
gollark: Arbitrarily high dimensional TTT so that you can exploit fun quirks of high dimensions which probably exist.

References
  1. "Janet Mertz's curriculum vitae, 1984". CSHL Archives Repository. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  2. "Alice Barkan". University of Oregon - Institute of Molecular Biology. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  3. "Alice Barkan Dissertation". University of Wisconsin Libraries. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  4. "Janet Mertz's curriculum vitae, 1984". CSHL Archives Repository. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  5. "Alice Barkan". molbio.uoregon.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
  6. "Six UO faculty members are named as fellows in the AAAS". University of Oregon. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  7. "2020 NAS Election". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2020-05-02.
  8. Barkan, Alice; Small, Ian (2014-04-29). "Pentatricopeptide Repeat Proteins in Plants". Annual Review of Plant Biology. 65 (1): 415–442. doi:10.1146/annurev-arplant-050213-040159. ISSN 1543-5008.
  9. Watkins, Kenneth P.; Williams‐Carrier, Rosalind; Chotewutmontri, Prakitchai; Friso, Giulia; Teubner, Marlene; Belcher, Susan; Ruwe, Hannes; Schmitz‐Linneweber, Christian; Wijk, Klaas J. van; Barkan, Alice (2020). "Exploring the proteome associated with the mRNA encoding the D1 reaction center protein of Photosystem II in plant chloroplasts". The Plant Journal. 102 (2): 369–382. doi:10.1111/tpj.14629. ISSN 1365-313X.
  10. Chotewutmontri, Prakitchai; Barkan, Alice (2016-07-14). Wollman, Francis-André (ed.). "Dynamics of Chloroplast Translation during Chloroplast Differentiation in Maize". PLOS Genetics. 12 (7): e1006106. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1006106. ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 4945096. PMID 27414025.
  11. Barkan, A. (1988-09-01). "Proteins encoded by a complex chloroplast transcription unit are each translated from both monocistronic and polycistronic mRNAs". The EMBO Journal. 7 (9): 2637–2644. doi:10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb03116.x. ISSN 0261-4189.
  12. Barkan, A. (1993-04-01). "Nuclear Mutants of Maize with Defects in Chloroplast Polysome Assembly Have Altered Chloroplast RNA Metabolism". The Plant Cell. 5 (4): 389–402. doi:10.1105/tpc.5.4.389. ISSN 1040-4651. PMC 160279. PMID 12271069.
  13. Jenkins, B. D.; Kulhanek, D. J.; Barkan, A. (1997-03-01). "Nuclear mutations that block group II RNA splicing in maize chloroplasts reveal several intron classes with distinct requirements for splicing factors". The Plant Cell. 9 (3): 283–296. doi:10.1105/tpc.9.3.283. ISSN 1040-4651. PMC 156918. PMID 9090875.
  14. Barkan, Alice; Goldschmidt-Clermont, Michel (2000-06-07). "Participation of nuclear genes in chloroplast gene expression". Biochimie. 82 (6): 559–572. doi:10.1016/S0300-9084(00)00602-7. ISSN 0300-9084.
  15. Barkan, Alice; Small, Ian (2014-04-29). "Pentatricopeptide Repeat Proteins in Plants". Annual Review of Plant Biology. 65 (1): 415–442. doi:10.1146/annurev-arplant-050213-040159. ISSN 1543-5008.
  16. Ostheimer, G. J. (2003-08-01). "Group II intron splicing factors derived by diversification of an ancient RNA-binding domain". The EMBO Journal. 22 (15): 3919–3929. doi:10.1093/emboj/cdg372. ISSN 1460-2075. PMC 169045. PMID 12881426.
  17. de Longevialle, Andéol Falcon; Small, Ian D.; Lurin, Claire (2010). "Nuclearly Encoded Splicing Factors Implicated in RNA Splicing in Higher Plant Organelles". Molecular Plant. 3 (4): 691–705. doi:10.1093/mp/ssq025.
  18. McDermott, James J.; Watkins, Kenneth P.; Williams-Carrier, Rosalind; Barkan, Alice (2019-08-01). "Ribonucleoprotein Capture by in Vivo Expression of a Designer Pentatricopeptide Repeat Protein in Arabidopsis". The Plant Cell. 31 (8): 1723–1733. doi:10.1105/tpc.19.00177. ISSN 1040-4651. PMC 6713294. PMID 31123048.
  19. Rojas, Margarita; Yu, Qiguo; Williams-Carrier, Rosalind; Maliga, Pal; Barkan, Alice (2019). "Engineered PPR proteins as inducible switches to activate the expression of chloroplast transgenes". Nature Plants. 5 (5): 505–511. doi:10.1038/s41477-019-0412-1. ISSN 2055-0278.
  20. "Byrdsong Renaissance Consort". byrdsongconsort.com. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
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