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Robert L. Last

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Robert L. "Rob" Last
AwardsUniversity Distinguished Professor and Barnett Rosenberg Chair, Michigan State University
University Distinguished Faculty, Michigan State University
Postdoctoral Mentoring Award, College of Natural Sciences, Michigan State University
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Fellow of American Society of Plant Biologists
NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award
Scientific career
InstitutionsOhio Wesleyan University
Carnegie-Mellon University
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Cornell University
Michigan State University
Thesis Characterization of RNA splicing components of the Baker’s Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae  (1986)
Doctoral advisorJohn L. Woolford
Websitebmb.natsci.msu.edu/faculty/robert-l-last/

Robert L. Last is a plant biochemical genomicist who studies metabolic processes that protect plants from the environment and produce products important for animal and human nutrition. His research has covered (1) production and breakdown of essential amino acids, (2) the synthesis and protective roles of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and Vitamin E (tocopherols) as well as identification of mechanisms that protect photosystem II from damage, and (3) synthesis and biological functions of plant protective specialized metabolites (plant secondary metabolites). Four central questions are: (i) how are leaf and seed amino acids levels regulated, (ii.) what mechanisms protect and repair photosystem II from stress-induced damage, (iii.) how do plants produce protective metabolites in their glandular secreting trichomes (iv.) and what are the evolutionary mechanisms that contribute to the tremendous diversity of specialized metabolites that protect plants from insects and pathogens and are used as therapeutic agents.[1][2][3]

Education and training

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Last obtained a BA in chemistry with a minor in biology in 1980 from Ohio Wesleyan University. He received his PhD in 1986 from Carnegie-Mellon University for research conducted in the Biological Sciences Department. His thesis research on the RNA genes of the Baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was carried out under the direction of Professor John Woolford.[1]

Professional experience

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Last spent three years as an NSF Plant Biology Postdoctoral Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research working with Professor Gerald R. Fink. Starting in 1989 he worked through the ranks to Scientist at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, and Adjunct Professor of Genetics and Development at Cornell University. Starting in 1998, he worked for four years at Cereon Genomics in Cambridge, MA as a founding science director. A highlight of this work was shotgun sequencing of the Arabidopsis thaliana Landsberg erecta genome.[4] He served for 1.5 years as a program officer in the US National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program before moving to Michigan State University, where he is Barnett Rosenberg Chair, with appointments in the Departments of Plant Biology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. During this time he established the MSU Plant Genomics Research Experiences for Undergraduates Summer Training Program (in 2006) and serves as founding Program Director of the NIH-funded Plant Biotechnology for Health and Sustainability graduate training program. He has had sabbatical appointments at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the Weizmann Institute of Science.[1][5]

Last was elected as President-Elect of the American Society of Plant Biologists in 2017, with service as President in 2018-2019 and Past-President in 2019-2020. He served in a variety of editorial roles including as a founding Associate Editor of Science Advances, Associate and Monitoring Editor of Plant Physiology and Editor-in Chief of The Arabidopsis Book. He was chair of the board of directors of the iPlant Collaborative (now CyVerse) during its first three years.[1]

Research

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Last studies how plants produce metabolites that are important for their survival in the environment and either are essential for human health or contribute to the well-being of humans and other primary consumers of plants. His research integrates genetics, genomics, analytical chemistry, biochemistry and evolutionary biology to identify and characterize the proteins that perform these functions. Significant accomplishments related to primary metabolism in plants include identification of the first genetically-transmitted amino acid requiring mutants of plants leading to characterization of the tryptophan biosynthetic pathway,[6][7] branched chain amino acid metabolic networks,[8] and molecular genetic dissection of the Vitamins C and E biosynthetic pathways.[4][9] Notable accomplishments related to plant environmental adaptation include characterization of plant UV-B sensing, protective and repair mechanisms,[10][11][12] PSII protection and repair,[13][14] and detailed analysis of the biosynthetic and evolutionary mechanisms that contribute to metabolic diversity in glandular secreting trichomes of cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and its relatives in the Solanaceae (nightshade) family.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Robert L. Last". msu.edu. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
  2. ^ "Robert L. Last". Retrieved August 26, 2017.
  3. ^ "CV" (PDF). cornell.edu. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Jander, G; et al. (2002). "Arabidopsis map-based cloning in the post-genome era". Plant Physiology. 129 (2): 440–450. doi:10.1104/pp.003533. PMC 1540230. PMID 12068090.
  5. ^ Schiavo, Fiorella Lo; Last, Robert L.; Morelli, Giorgio; Raikhel, Natasha V. (29 June 2013). Cellular Integration of Signalling Pathways in Plant Development. ISBN 9783642721175. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
  6. ^ Last, RL; Fink, GR (1988). "Tryptophan-requiring mutants of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana". Science. 240 (4850): 305–310. Bibcode:1988Sci...240..305L. doi:10.1126/science.240.4850.305. PMID 17796738. S2CID 39917514.
  7. ^ Radwanski, ER; Last, RL (1995). "Tryptophan biosynthesis and metabolism: Biochemical and molecular genetics". Plant Cell. 7 (7): 921–934. doi:10.2307/3870047. JSTOR 3870047. PMC 160888. PMID 7640526.
  8. ^ Gu, L (2010). "Metabolite profiling reveals broad metabolic phenotypes associated with a plant amino acid catabolism mutant". Plant Journal. 61 (4): 579–590. doi:10.1111/j.1365-313x.2009.04083.x. PMID 19929878.
  9. ^ Van Eenennaam, AL (2003). "Engineering improved vitamin E quality: from Arabidopsis mutant to soy oil". Plant Cell. 15 (12): 3007–3019. doi:10.1105/tpc.015875. PMC 282849. PMID 14630966.
  10. ^ Li, J; et al. (1993). "Arabidopsis flavonoid mutants are hypersensitive to UV-B irradiation". Plant Cell. 5 (2): 171–179. doi:10.2307/3869583. JSTOR 3869583. PMC 160260. PMID 12271060.
  11. ^ Landry, LG; et al. (1997). "An Arabidopsis photolyase mutant is hypersensitive to ultraviolet-B radiation". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 94 (1): 328–332. Bibcode:1997PNAS...94..328L. doi:10.1073/pnas.94.1.328. PMC 19334. PMID 8990208.
  12. ^ Kliebenstein, DJ; et al. (2002). "The Arabidopsis RCC1 homologue UVR8 mediates UV-B signal transduction and tolerance". Plant Physiology. 130 (1): 234–243. doi:10.1104/pp.005041. PMC 166556. PMID 12226503.
  13. ^ Lu, Y; et al. (2011). "A small zinc finger thylakoid protein plays a role in maintenance of photosystem II". Plant Cell. 23 (5): 1861–1875. doi:10.1105/tpc.111.085456. PMC 3123961. PMID 21586683.
  14. ^ Liu, Jun; Last, Robert L. (2017-09-19). "A chloroplast thylakoid lumen protein is required for proper photosynthetic acclimation of plants under fluctuating light environments". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (38): E8110–E8117. Bibcode:2017PNAS..114E8110L. doi:10.1073/pnas.1712206114. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5617312. PMID 28874535.
  15. ^ Schilmiller, AL; Schauvinhold, I; et al. (2009). "Monoterpenes in the glandular trichomes of tomato are synthesized via a neryl diphosphate intermediate rather than geranyl diphosphate". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 106 (26): 10865–70. doi:10.1073/pnas.0904113106. PMC 2705607. PMID 19487664.
  16. ^ Milo, R; Last, RL (2012). "Achieving diversity in the face of constraints - lessons from metabolism". Science. 336 (6089): 1663–1667. Bibcode:2012Sci...336.1663M. doi:10.1126/science.1217665. PMID 22745419. S2CID 206539296.
  17. ^ Schilmiller, AL; et al. (2012). "Identification of a BAHD acetyltransferase that produces protective acyl sugars in tomato trichomes". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 109 (40): 16377–16382. doi:10.1073/pnas.1207906109. PMC 3479610. PMID 22988115.
  18. ^ Liu, J; Last, RL (2015). ". A land plant-specific thylakoid membrane protein contributes to photosystem II maintenance in Arabidopsis thaliana". Plant Journal. 82 (5): 731–743. doi:10.1111/tpj.12845. PMID 25846821.
  19. ^ Fan, P; et al. (2016). "In vitro reconstruction and analysis of evolutionary variation of the tomato acylsucrose metabolic network". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 113 (2): E239-48. Bibcode:2016PNAS..113E.239F. doi:10.1073/pnas.1517930113. PMC 4720351. PMID 26715757.
  20. ^ Fan, P; Miller, AM; Liu, X; Jones, AD; Last, RL (2017). "Evolution of a flipped pathway creates metabolic innovation in tomato trichomes through BAHD enzyme promiscuity". Nature Communications. 8 (1): 2080. Bibcode:2017NatCo...8.2080F. doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02045-7. PMC 5727100. PMID 29234041.
  21. ^ Moghe, GD; Leong, BJ; Hurney, SM; Jones, AD; Last, RL (2017). "Evolutionary routes to biochemical innovation revealed by integrative analysis of a plant-defense related specialized metabolic pathway". eLife. 6: e38468. doi:10.7554/eLife.28468. PMC 5595436. PMID 28853706.
  22. ^ Leong, Bryan J.; Lybrand, Daniel B.; Lou, Yann-Ru; Fan, Pengxiang; Schilmiller, Anthony L.; Last, Robert L. (2019-04-01). "Evolution of metabolic novelty: A trichome-expressed invertase creates specialized metabolic diversity in wild tomato". Science Advances. 5 (4): eaaw3754. Bibcode:2019SciA....5.3754L. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaw3754. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 6482016. PMID 31032420.
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