Mannie Liscum

Professor of Biological Sciences

Biological Sciences, Plant Sciences,

LscumME@Missouri.edu

573-882-2672

Research interest

The Liscum lab employs the Arabidopsis plant as a model to study how plants alter their growth and development in response to subtle and rapid environmental changes. Primarily Liscum studies the molecular mechanisms of phototropism, or how plants grow toward or away from directional light. The lab’s research has lead to advances in: understanding how the primary phototropic photoreceptor initiates signaling; understanding how certain proteins affect the signaling process; understanding how various plant hormones are integrated into the signal-response system; and unraveling how phototropic responses impact plant ecology and evolution. On a more practical note, the Liscum lab has found that signaling from the phototropic photoreceptor has influence on water acquisition and usage, as well as response to plant pathogens. These findings could aid scientists working toward engineering crop plants that are more tolerant to drought and the detrimental effects of pathogens.

Education

B.S. State University of New York-Plattsburg

Ph.D. The Ohio State University

Post-doc Carnegie Institute of Washington

Selected publications

Stone BB, Stowe-Evans EL, Harper RM, Celaya RB, Ljung K, Sandberg G, Liscum E. (2008) Disruptions in AUX1-dependent auxin influx alter hypocotyl phototropism in Arabidopsis. Molecular Plant 1(1):129-144.

Pedmale UV, Liscum E (2007) Regulation of phototropic signaling in Arabidopsis through phosphorylation state changes in the phot1-interacting protein NPH3. J Biol Chem 282: 19992-20001

Galen C, Rabenold JJ, Liscum E (2007) Addendum: Light-sensing in roots. Plant Signaling & Behavior 2: 106-108

Galen C, Rabenold JJ, Liscum E (2007) Functional ecology of a blue light photoreceptor: effects of phototropin-1 on root growth enhance drought tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. New Phytol 173: 91-99

Lariguet P, Schepens I, Hodgson D, Pedmale UV, Alonso JM, Ecker JR, Liscum E, Fankhauser C (2006) PKS1 (phytochrome kinase substrate 1) is a phototropin 1 binding protein required for phototropism. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103: 10134-10139

Quecini V, Liscum E (2006) Signal transduction in blue light-mediated responses. In Photomorphogenesis in Plants and Bacteria: Function and Signal Transduction Mechanisms, 3rd Edition, Schäfer, E. and F. Nagy, eds. (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht), pp. 305-327

Esmon CA, Tinsley AG, Ljung K, Sandberg G, Hearne L, Liscum E (2006) A gradient of auxin and auxin-dependent transcription precedes tropic growth responses. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103: 236-241

Stone BB, Esmon CA, Liscum E (2005) Phototropins, other photoreceptors, and associated signaling: the lead and supporting cast in the control of plant movement responses. In Current Topics in Developmental Biology, Volume 66, Schatten, G.P., ed. (Elsevier Academic Press, San Diego), pp. 215-237

Liscum E (2005) Review of The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II’s Most Decorated Platoon by Alex Kershaw (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2004), J Military Hist 69: 596-597

Esmon CA, Pedmale UV, Liscum E (2005) Plant tropisms: Providing the power of movement to a sessile organism. Intl J Dev Biol 49: 665-674