New NAS member Joanne Chory, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute associate investigator and a professor of plant biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., studies the mechanisms by which light signals regulate plant development. Using Arabidopsis as a model, Chory's group isolates mutations that alter light-regulated seedling development. Her lab is particularly interested in phytochromes, photoreceptors that sense red and far-red light. The researchers have identified mutants deficient in phytochrome photoreceptors and in nuclear-localized repressors and demonstrated that steroid hormones control light-regulated seedling development. Recently, they identified a phytochrome-binding protein called PKS1 (phytochrome kinase substrate 1) that acts as a substrate for light-regulated phytochrome kinase activity in vitro.2 Chory, who feels fortunate to have started her career during the 1980s Arabidopsis research boom, looks forward to the soon-to-be-completed sequencing of the plant's genome, an achievement that promises to make Arabidopsis an even more valuable research ...
NAS Elects 60 New Members, 15 Foreign Associates
Editor's Note: The National Academy of Sciences has elected 60 new members and 15 foreign associates from 10 countries in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. In this article, The Scientist presents photographs of most of the new members and comments from some of them. A full directory of NAS members can be found online at www.nas.edu/nas. When in 1977 the genes of eukaryotes were found to be riddled with nonprotein-encoding stretches of bases,
Written byRicki Lewis
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