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Alice Barkan

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Alice Barkan
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S.)
University of Wisconsin (Ph.D.)
Known forgenetic machineries in the chloroplast
AwardsFellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2017)
Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (2020)
Scientific career
FieldsMolecular biology
InstitutionsUniversity of Oregon
Doctoral advisorJanet E. Mertz[1]

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.

Education

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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][1]

Career and awards

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Barkan joined the University of Oregon in 1991, where she is currently a professor in the Institute of Molecular Biology.[4]

Barkan was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2017.[5]

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

Barkan was the recipient of a Faculty Excellence Award from the University of Oregon for 2018–19.[6]

Barkan was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020.[7] Election to the National Academy is one of the highest honors in the scientific field.

The University of Oregon (UO) awarded Barkan an Outstanding Career Award in 2020 to acknowledge not only her scientific accomplishments but also her career contributions in teaching, mentorship and leadership at the UO.[8]

Research

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Barkan's research is focused on how nucleus-encoded proteins affect chloroplast gene expression.[9][10][11] 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.[12][13][14] 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).[15] The majority of the nucleus-encoded proteins that Barkan has characterized contain pentatricopeptide repeats (PPR).[9] 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

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

References

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  1. ^ a b "Janet Mertz's curriculum vitae, 1984". CSHL Archives Repository. 1984. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  2. ^ "Alice Barkan". University of Oregon - Institute of Molecular Biology. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  3. ^ Alice Barkan Dissertation. 1983. Retrieved 17 July 2019. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  4. ^ "Alice Barkan". molbio.uoregon.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
  5. ^ "Six UO faculty members are named as fellows in the AAAS". University of Oregon. 20 November 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  6. ^ "Provost announces recipients of Faculty Excellence Awards". Around the O. University of Oregon. 19 June 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  7. ^ "2020 NAS Election". nasonline.org. Retrieved 2020-05-02.
  8. ^ "Five faculty members receive Outstanding Research Awards". Around the O. University of Oregon. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  9. ^ a b 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. PMID 24471833.
  10. ^ 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. PMID 31793101.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ 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. PMC 457051. PMID 2460341.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ 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. PMID 10946107.
  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. PMID 20603383.
  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. PMID 31036912. S2CID 139103684.
  20. ^ "Byrdsong Renaissance Consort". byrdsongconsort.com. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
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