STANTON GELVIN

Our research investigates how a soil bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens , genetically engineers plants. Agrobacterium transfers a piece of bacterial DNA, the T-(transferred) DNA, to wounded plant cells where it makes its way through the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Once in the nucleus, T-DNA integrates into the host genome and expresses genes. Under normal circumstances, these genes cause the disease Crown Gall on plants. However, scientists have learned to manipulate T-DNA, replacing disease genes with genes of benefit to the plant. Many genetically engineered crop plants with desirable traits (disease resistance, herbicide tolerance, and enhanced nutritional value) were generated using Agrobacterium . Unfortunately, many important crop plants, including those important to Indiana farmers (corn, soybeans, and wheat) remain highly recalcitrant to Agrobacterium -mediated genetic transformation.

Our research focuses on understanding the role of plant genes and proteins in this natural genetic engineering process. We have identified plant genes involved in bacterial attachment to plant cells, T-DNA and Virulence transfer to and cytoplasmic trafficking within plants, T-DNA nuclear targeting, and T-DNA integration. Recently, we have been able to manipulate some of these genes to improve Agrobacterium transformation efficiency. We are currently working with agricultural biotechnology companies to improve the genetic engineering of crops, including those important for Indianas economy.

Education

Ph.D., California, San Diego, 1977

Professional Faculty Research

(Plant molecular biology) Mechanism of the transfer to and expression of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens Ti-plasmid in plant cells.

Awards

• Edwin Umbarger Distinguished Professor of Biology (2008)
• Loomis Lecturer, Iowa State University (2006)
• Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology (elected 2006)
• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (elected 2010)
• Bindley Bioscience Center Fellow (2012)

Grants

Gelvin (PI)      09/01/09-08/31/12     NSF                         Formation and characterization of the Agrobacterium T-complex in plant cells.

Gelvin (PI)       03/01/11-02/28/13      NSF                         Novel proteins required for gene transfer to plants. 

Gelvin (PI)       06/01/12-12/31/12      Dow Agrosciences     Manipulation of a maize myb transcription factor gene to increase transformation.

Other Activities

Editorial Board:

• Associate Editor, Plant Methods

Grant Reviews/Study Sections:

• CDFA
• Corporation for Plant Biotechnology Research

Advisory Board:

• BRDC Scientific Advisory Board
• Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Faculty Presentations and Conferences, 2006-2012:

• March 7-9, 2006. "Mechanisms of Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation: Plant genes involved in transformation". University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
• March 27-29, 2006. Loomis lecture: "The molecular mechanism of plant genetic transformation by Agrobacterium tumefaciens: Natures genetic engineer". Participated in a Symposium entitled "New facets in cross-kingdom interdependence: Molecular plant-microbe interactions" and presented a seminar entitled "Trafficking of Agrobacterium T-DNA through the plant cell". Iowa State University, Ames.
• April 4-6, 2006. BRACT Transformation Workshop and the Third UK Cereal Genetics and Genomics Workshop. "Manipulating the Plant Genome to Improve Agrobacterium-mediated Transformation". John Innes Centre, Norwich, England.
• June 12-28, 2006. T-DNA integration into the host genome: Revisiting some old concepts. Institute of Plant and Microbial Boilogy, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
• July 21-26, 2006. Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated plant genetic transformation. University of California, Davis.
• August 11, 2006. Over-expression of several Arabidopsis histone genes increases susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and Isolation and characterization of Arabidopsis mutants that are hyper-susceptible to Agrobacterium transformation (hat mutants). Biotechnology Research and Development Corporation meeting, Chicago.
• September 28, 2006. Agrobacterium and plant genetic engineering. Wabash College.
• October 18-30, 2006. Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated plant genetic transformation: Manipulating these genes to enhance transformation: Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Fudan University, Shanghai, China; Zhejiang Science and Technical University, Hangzhou, China; Jaotung University, Shanghai, China; Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology.
• November 17-19, 2006. The following talks/posters were presented at the 27th Annual Crown Gall conference, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.
  • Vijayanand Nadella, Lan-Ying Lee, and Stanton B. Gelvin Tracking the movement of VirE2 from Agrobacterium to plant cells
  • Lan-Ying Lee, Heiko Oltmanns, Josh Cuperus, and Stanton B. Gelvin Using bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) to study interactions between Agrobacterium virulence proteins and plant nuclear transfer proteins.
  • Heiko Oltmanns, Bronwyn Frame, Susan Johnson, Lan-Ying Lee, Bo Li, Kan Wang, and Stanton B. Gelvin Generation of backbone free, low transgene copy plants by integration of T-DNA into the Agrobacterium chromosome.
  • Nagesh Sardesai, Huabang Chen, Joerg Spantzel, and Stanton B. Gelvin Activation-tagging reveals a putative negative global regulator of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in Arabidopsis.
  • Joerg Spantzel, Yanmin Zhou, Simran Bhullar, and Stanton B. Gelvin Over- expression of Arabidopsis Histone H2A and H4, but not H2B and H3, cDNAs increases the frequency of Agrobacterium-mediated root transformation.
• February 2-9, 2007. Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated transformation: Manipulating these genes to improve transformation efficiency. Plenary lecture, Plant Transformation Technologies Conference, Vienna, Austria.
• February 28-March 1, 2007. Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. University of Missouri, Columbia.
• March 15-16, 2007. "Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, University of Hawaii.
• May 9-11, 2007. "Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated transformation", University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland
• April 10-11, 2008. "Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation", Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey
• May 4-9, 2008.  "Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated plant genetic transformation", International Association of Plant Biotechnology meeting, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
• June 14-18, 2008.  "Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated plant genetic transformation", Canadian Societyof Plant Physiology Meeting, Ottawa, Canada.
• November 9 - December 10, 2008.  "Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated plant genetic transformation", The Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
• November 18, 2008.  "Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated plant genetic transformation", Monsanto Co., St. Louis, MO.
• November 21-23, 2008.  The following talks and poster presentations at 29th Annual Crown Gall Conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI:
  • "Cytokinin regulates expression of a myb transcription factor which influences susceptibility of Arabidopsis roots to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation" by Nagesh Sardesai, Gayla Olbricht, Hau-Hsuan Hwang, Yun-Long Tsai, Rebecca Doerge, Erh-Min Lai, and Stanton B. Gelvin.
  • "Using multi-color bimolecular fluorescence complementation to investigate protein-protein interactions in living plant cells" by Lan-Ying Lee, Mei-Jane Fang, Lin-Yun Kuang, and Stanton B. Gelvin.
  • "Peptide aptamers for defining protein function" by Stanton B. Gelvin, Lan-Ying Lee, Joerg Spantzel, Cuiping Xia, Nathan Hood, Yaling Wang, and Zhuzhu Zhang.
  • "A novel Agrobacterium tumorigenesis assay" by Carla Rosenfield, Nagesh Sardsai, and Stanton B. Gelvin.
  • "Over-expression of a UDP-glucosyltransferase represses plant defense responses and increases susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation" by Nagesh Sardesai, Ann Perera, Rebecca Doerge, and Stanton B. Gelvin.
• April 7, 2009.  "Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation", National Central University, Chunli, Taiwan.
• July 19-24, 2009.  "Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation", poster presented at the IS-MPMI Congress, Quebec City, Canada.
• October 25-30, 2009. Keynote speaker, Developmental Biology Meets Biotechnology:  Big things on the Horizon workshop: "Manipulating the plant genome to enhance Agrobacterium-mediated transformation."  Plant Microbe-Interactions that Affect Plant Development session: "Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated transformation."  9th Congress of the International Society for Plant Molecular Biology, St. Louis, MO.
• November 21-23, 2009.  30th Annual Crown Gall Conference, The Noble Foundation, Ardmore OK.  The following talks from the Gelvin lab were presented:  Nagesh Sardesai, Gayla Olbricht, Hau-Hsuan Hwang, Yun-Long Tsai, Rebecca Doerge, Erh-Min Lai, and Stanton B. Gelvin: "Regulation of a myb transcripton factor by trans-zeatin influences susceptiblity of Arabidopsis roots to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation"; Yaling Wang, Lan-Ying Lee, Larry Hodges, Walt Ream, and Stanton B. Gelvin: "Arabidopsis GALLS-interacting protein (GIP) facilitates T-DNA transfer"; Stanton B. Gelvin, Lan-Ying Lee, Choun-Sea Lin, Fu-Hui Wu, Mei-Jane Fang: Direct screening of a plant cDNA library against a bait protein in planta: A progress report".
• December 14-16, 2009. "Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation."  Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan.
• December 17-19, 2009. Scientific Advisory Board review of the Institute for Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
• January 24-25, 2010.  "Improving Agrobacterium-mediated plant genetic transformation".  Pioneer Hybrid Corp., Johnston, IO.
• March 2-5, 2010. "Agrobacterium T-DNA integration into the plant genome", Second Plant DNA Repair and Recombination Conference, Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, CA.
• July 6-8, 2010. On-site review of Department of Energy program, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Oak Ridge, TN.
• October 1-2, 2010. "Thirty-two years of Agrobacterium research, from the plant's perspective".  Retirement symposium for Dr. Eugene W. Nester, Seattle, WA.
• October 5-7, 2010. "Plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated plant genetic transformation".  Southern Crop Protection and Food Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, London, Ontario, Canada.
• November 5-7, 2010.  The following talks and posters were presented at the 31st Annual Crown Gall Conference, University of California, Berkeley:  “Direct screening of a plant cDNA library against a bait protein in planta: An application of bimolecular fluorescence complementation” by  Lan-Ying Lee, Fu-Hui Wu, Chen-Tran Hsu, Shu-Chen Shen, Hsuan-Yu Yeh, De-Chih Liao, Mei-Jane Fang, Nien-Tze Liu, Choun-Sea Li, and Stanton B. Gelvin; “An Arabidopsis Myb Transcription Factor Regulates Susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation” by Nagesh Sardesai, Huabang Chen, HoChul Yi, Gayla Olbricht, Kristin Laluk,  Lin-Yun Kuang, Min-Long Wang, Yue-Ie Hsing, R.W. Doerge, Tesfaye Mengiste, and Stanton B. Gelvin.; “Involvement of Non-homologous End-joining Proteins in T-DNA Integration” by So-Yon Park, Zarir Vaghchhipawala, Balaji Vasudevan, Wanda M. Waterworth, Christopher E. West, Kiran S. Mysore, and Stanton B. Gelvin; “Arabidopsis GALLS-interacting protein (GIP) facilitates Agrobacterium-mediated transformatio by Yaling Wang, Lan-Ying Lee, Larry Hodges, Walt Ream, and Stanton B. Gelvin; “Myosins contribute to Agrobacterium‑mediated transformation” by Yanjun Yu, Lan-Ying Lee, Valerian Dolja, and Stanton B. Gelvin; “Delivery of T-DNA to DNA double stranded breaks:  Mechanism and application” by Masaki Endo, Stanton B. Gelvin, and Seiichi Toki.
• December 7, 2010.  “Bimolecular fluorescence complementation to image protein-protein interactions in plants.”  Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation Workshop, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
• January 15-17, 2011.  "Manipulating the plant genome to enhance Agrobacterium-mediated transformation."  Invited speaker at the Advancement in Crop Transformation Technology Workshop, 19th Annual Plant and Animal Genome meeting, San Diego, CA.
• February 19-22, 2011.  "Manipulating the plant to enhance Agrobacterium-mediated transformation."  Invited speaker at the Plant Transformation Technology II Meeting, Vienna, Austria.  Also, member of the International Organizing Committee.
• February 23-26, 2011.  "Direct screening of a plant cDNA library against a bait protein in planta:  A novel plant two-hybrid system."  Invited speaker at the Plant Gene Identification Technologies Meeting, Vienna, Austria.  Also, member of the International Organizing Committee.
• April 13, 2011.  “Improving Agrobacterium-mediated plant genetic transformation.”  Invited speaker at Dow AgroSciences, Zionsville,  IN. Also, consulted with colleagues.
• May 24-27, 2011. "Manipulating the plant genome to increase susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation".  Invited speaker at the Plants for the Future Symposium, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO. 
• June 8, 2011.  “Manipulating the plant genome to increase susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation”.  Invited speaker at the Mini-symposium on Recent Advances in Plant and Microbial Biology, Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
• June 9-10, 2011.  Participated in Scientific Advisory Board meeting for the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.  Consulted with colleagues at the IPMB during the period of June 6-June 20, 2011.
• June 17, 2011.  Spoke with graduate students and consulted with colleagues at the Department of Biology, National Central University, Taoyan, Taiwan.
• July 26-28, 2011.  Attended the NSF EPSCOR P3 conference in Heber Springs, Arkansas, and presented an invited talk "Manipulating the plant genome to increase susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation". 
• October 29-30, 2011.  The following talks and posters were presented at the 32nd Annual Crown Gall Conference, Monsanto/Agracetus, Madison, WI: "'Classical' non-homologous end-joining proteins limit T-DNA integration into the plant genome", by So-Yon Park, Zarir E. Vaghchhipawala, Balaji Vasudevan, Wanda M. Waterworth, Christopher E. West, Stanton B. Gelvin, and Kiran S. Mysore; "Detection of VirD2 at plant double-strand DNA break sites", by Masaki Endo, Seiichi Toki, and Stanton B. Gelvin; "Plant transformation by Agrobacterium is negatively regulated by a myb transcription factor, MTF, via the cytokinin-signaling pathway", by Nagesh Sardesai, Chai-Ping Huang, and Stanton B. Gelvin; "Manipulation of myb transcription factors to improve crop transformation", by Nagesh Sardesai, Lin-Yun Kuang, Min-Long Wang, Yue-ie Hsing, Penny Sparrow, and Stanton B. Gelvin; "Root transformation assay screening of various Arabidopsis mutants", by So-Yon Park, Stanton B. Gelvin, and Zhanyuan Zhang; "RepB C-terminus mutations in ori pRi binary vectors affect plasmid copy number in Agrobacterium and transgene quality in plant transformation", by Zarir Vaghchhipawala, Xudong Ye, Sharon Radke, Mary L. Russell, Susan Johnson, Stanton B. Gelvin, and Larry Gilbertson; "Generation and screening of peptide aptamer libraries to identify inhibitors of proteins involved in Agrobacterium-mediated transformaton", by Hidekazu Iwakawa, So-Yon Park, Lan-Ying Lee, and Stanton B. Gelvin. 
• November 4-6, 2011.  Purdue University Biology Department retreat, Swan Lake resort, Plymouth, IN.  Presented an invited talk "Manipulating the plant genome to increase susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation".

• May 14, 2012.  “Manipulating the Plant Genome to Increase Susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated Transformation”.  Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
• May 15, 2012.  “Manipulating the Plant Genome to Increase Susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated Transformation”.  Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
• May 19, 2012.  “Manipulating the Plant Genome to Increase Susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated Transformation”. Keynote speaker, BIT Second Annual World Congress of Molecular & Cell Biology, Beijing, China. 
• May 25, 2012.  “Manipulating the Plant Genome to Increase Susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated Transformation”.  College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
• June 3-6, 2012.  Society for In Vitro Biology meeting, Seattle, WA.  “Increasing Agrobacterium-mediated Genetic Transformation by Manipulating the Plant Genome”.
• June 20-July 16, 2012.  Visited the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.  Delivered a series of lectures on molecular biology techniques to graduate students, and discussed research with collaborators.
• August 31, 2012. “Manipulating the plant genome to increase susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation”.  Department of Biology, IUPUI.
• November 7, 2012. "Manipulating the plant genome to increase susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation”.  Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., 612 65 Brno, and Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.  Consulted with colleagues Nov. 5-7.
• November 9, 2012.  "Manipulating the plant genome to increase susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation”.  School of Medicine, University of Montpellier, Nimes, France.

• December 1-2, 2012.  The following oral presentations and posters were made by the Gelvin laboratory at the 33^rd annual Crown Gall Conference at Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio:     Nagesh Sardesai, Lan-Ying Lee, Huabang Chen, HoChul Yi, Gayla R. Olbricht, Alexandra Stirnberg, Jacob Jeffries, R.W. Doerge, and Stanton B. Gelvin.   “Agrobacterium-mediated transformation is negatively regulated by a Myb transcription factor via the cytokinin-signaling pathway and a membrane protein important for bacterial attachment:  Application to crop transformation”.  Lan-Ying Lee, Yong Shi, Yanjun Yu, Shengjie Xu, Valerian Dolja, and Stanton B. Gelvin.  “Myosins affect the subcellular localization of Agrobacterium Virulence effector proteins”.   Hidekazu Iwakawa and Stanton B. Gelvin.  “Role of Histone H3 lysine 27 in Agrobacterium-mediated transformation”.  Zarir Vaghchhipawala, So-Yon Park, Balaji Vasudevan, Wanda M. Waterworth, Zhanyuan Zhang, Christopher E. West, Stanton B. Gelvin, and Kirankumar S. Mysore.  “Agrobacterium may delay plant non-homologous end-joining DNA repair to favor T-DNA integration”.

• December 9-11, 2012.  “Manipulating the plant genome to increase susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation” and “Proposed research collaborations”.  Bayer Crop Science LP, Research Triangle Park, NC.

• February 1, 2013.  “Manipulating the plant genome to increase susceptibility to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation” .  Department of Molecular Genetics, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.  And, consulted with colleagues.
• March 4, 2013. "Enhancing Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation by manipulating the host genome". NIH, Bethesda, MD.
• March 5, 2013. "A plant global regulator of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation: Application to crop transformation". Corporation for Plant Biotechnology Research (CPBR) Symposium.  Washington, DC.