Ron Mittler

Nature’s cinema: New technique allows plant imaging in real-time

October 23, 2019 By Mariah Cox in Research Tags: Arabidopsis, Ron Mittler

The September issue of Molecular Plant depicts a plant fluorescing in response to reactive oxygen species propogation taken by Yosef Fichman of the Mittler Lab.

By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC

Plant biologists across the country opened their mailboxes last month to the glowing leaves of Arabidopsis on the cover of the latest issue of Molecular Plant.

That cover taken by post-doctoral researcher Yosef Fichman of Bond Life Sciences Center depicts plants fluorescing in response to reactive oxygen species (ROS) propagation, a technique that allows researchers to track plant response to certain stressors.

The novel approach is the first of its kind to image the response of an entire plant, rather than small samples. To make this technique work, Fichman — who works in the lab of Bond LSC’s Ron Mittler — and his collaborators came up with the idea to fumigate the plant with a dye which enters the plant, reacts with ROS inside the plant and fluoresces under an in vivo imaging system (IVIS). From there, the researchers could watch the stress signals of the plant as they evolve in real-time following the application of different stresses.

Soil ‘cookies’ are used to grow Arabidopsis in the lab for use in Fichman’s ROS imaging research. | Photo by Mariah Cox, Bond LSC

ROS are essential regulators of cellular and systemic signals in plants as well as animals. Additionally, they play an important role in hormonal, physiological, and developmental reactions in plants such as growth and development as well as defense and acclimation to environmental stress.

ROS are both beneficial and detrimental to plants. On one hand, they regulate basic biological processes. On the other, if overproduced, they are toxic to cells and can cause cell stress or death. However, recent research by the Mittler lab supports the idea that, at certain levels, ROS can be more beneficial than harmful because they have the power to signal defense mechanisms against stressors in the environment. In essence, it is a way for cells to communicate with each other, creating a domino effect, or wave that sends a message to nearby cells and eventually over long distances within the plant.

Now that they have a technique to detect the fast-moving ROS signal in plants, the researchers can identify the proteins that are involved in the plants’ response to stress. The signal is important because it causes fast adjustments to stress within the environment, which means that other parts of the plant that are not subject to stress can build up protection mechanisms.

“In order to understand plants’ response to stress, we need to know the mechanism of that’s going on in plants,” Fichman said. “Basically, it’s a balance of resources within the plant.”

Currently, the researchers are working with Arabidopsis, but this technique applies to other plant and crop models. Previous methods of tracking biological responses in plants included the arduous process of gene manipulation and expression. The new method allows for a straight-forward approach to tracking and monitoring the biological reactions in plants.

Moving forward the researchers plan to use Arabidopsis mutants and other plants to track the response to different stresses compared to the wild type to see if there are changes in the genes involved. Fichman is particularly interested in the effect of abiotic stresses, such as high-intensity light and leaf destruction by insects.

Arabidopsis under high light — The Mittler lab uses high-intensity light shone directly on the plant’s leaves to imitate light stress in natural environments. | Photo by Mariah Cox, Bond LSC

“Whether you like to call it weather extremes or global climate change, there are changes. Plants are a main food source, so we need to be prepared to create better plants for the future that allows crops to grow in stressful conditions such as high light, less water and heat,” Fichman said. “If plants invest more resources into protecting themselves they will be able to survive these changes and continue to produce food for our future. I’m studying this mechanism in ROS waves and in different pathways to create better plants in the future.”

By understanding the proteins that are involved in plants’ response to stress, researchers can begin to re-engineer plants to survive harsher conditions. Fichman’s technique makes it easier to recognize plants’ responses to stress moving forward.

For Yosef, when it comes to research, imagination is the only limitation.

“In research, we can come up with the craziest ideas and science allows us to check those ideas and discover new things,” Fichman said. “This is why I wake up in the morning.”

This research was published in the September 2019 edition of Molecular Plant.

Post-doc receives prestigious Spanish plant science award

September 6, 2019 By Mariah Cox in Research Tags: Ron Mittler

Sara Zandalinas is a post-doc researcher in Ron Mittler’s lab | Photo by Mariah Cox, Bond LSC

By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC

International flights usually require months of planning to score the best deals and to ensure minimal layovers, so Sara Izquierdo Zandalinas, a post-doc in the Ron Mittler lab, was faced with a challenge as she flew to Spain twice within a month’s span this summer.

But the reason for those flights was a pleasant surprise. Zandalinas recently received the 2019 Sabater award given every two years at the Meeting of the Spanish Society of Plant Physiology held in Pamplona Spain from June 26-28. This award is a tribute to Francisco Sabater, a widely recognized plant physiologist of Spain, and is the most prestigious award given to early-career Spanish researchers in plant science.

“I couldn’t believe it because they told me I won one month before the conference,” said Zandalinas. “At that time, I was in Spain at another conference for 10 days, so I had to come back to Missouri and then I had one-and-a-half weeks to prepare a keynote presentation before I had to go back to Spain.”

Nonetheless, she was thrilled.

Zandalinas was recognized for her research on the role of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), a fancy term for reactive chemical species such as peroxides, in regulating plants responses to stresses and combined stresses, such as heat or drought.

“Studying combined stress is very important because with climate change, as temperatures are increasing, plants are facing not only one single stress in the field but also other additional stresses,” said Zandalinas. “Previous reports in this lab have shown that plants response to a single stress is completely different from the response of plants to multiple stresses.”

As a result, Zandalinas has spent the past two-and-a-half years identifying which genes are involved in acclimating plants to combined stresses. By selecting the genes that hold up well against certain stresses, scientists can begin to develop plants that are more tolerant.

When she was completing her undergraduate degree at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Zandalinas recalls many of her friends and colleagues being drawn to the medical aspect of science. However, not many people were interested in studying plants.

Zandalinas, too, thought she was heading toward a career in the medical field until her final undergraduate project producing human antibodies in tobacco plants changed her mind.

“I remember thinking, ‘how is it possible that we can produce human antibodies in plants and in the future apply it to humans?’ I was fascinated by the powerful tools we have of using plants as bio-factories,” said Zandalinas.

From there, she received two master’s degrees in chromatographic techniques and analytical techniques used in clinical labs and a Ph.D. in plant biotechnology from Jaume I University in Castellon, Spain. Afterward, she began her post-doc with Ron Mittler at the University of North Texas before the lab moved to MU last fall.

While she enjoys having the resources for her research such as MU’s Genomics Technology Core and the Proteomics Center, Zandalinas dreams of the sunny skies and warmth back home in Spain.

Following the completion of her post-doc, Zandalinas hopes to establish her own lab back in Spain. She explains that it won’t be as easy to find a research position in Spain because so many people are completing their post-docs in the U.S. and Europe and are wanting to return to Spain.

“In one to three years I hope to receive a research grant from the Spanish government to begin my own research investigations,” Zandalinas said.

As a result of being awarded the 2019 Sabater Award, Zandalinas is now the Spanish candidate for the award for young European researchers in the biannual conferences of the Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology which will take place in Turin, Italy from June 29-July 2, 2020.

#IAmScience Amith Reddy

March 8, 2019 By Mariah Cox in #IAmScience Tags: Ron Mittler

Mariah Cox | Bond LSC

Amith Reddy has been in academia for some time and doesn’t plan to leave anytime soon.

With two master’s degrees under his belt, Reddy is only a few months away from completing his Ph.D. in plant sciences.

Reddy began his secondary education career in India where he spent most of his life before moving to New Mexico for his second master’s. He cites the hands-on application of science that he first began to experience at the Directorate of Sorghum Research in India as the turning point of his interest in plant sciences.

“I think the first research experience I had that was hands-on was with handling DNA, and I was fascinated by that,” Reddy said. “During my undergraduate years, we just read about science but beginning with my master’s degree and on we handled science.”

Reddy started his doctorate program at the University of North Texas but transferred to the University of Missouri when his mentor, Ron Mittler, moved his lab to Bond Life Sciences Center just ten months shy of completing his degree. While some may be thrown off by a big move just months before graduating, Reddy embraced the change positively.

“I wanted to continue my work with Ron because he is an excellent mentor,” Reddy said.

Reddy firmly believes that having a passion for research and a good mentor will bring success to academic research.

“I think we all need to have a compatible mentor that pushes us to be focused and driven,” Reddy said. “Ron is very science focused, passionate and motivated. I hope to one day emulate those characteristics in my career as well.”

For his Ph.D. dissertation, Reddy researches the stomatal response in plants after being exposed to light stress. More simply, he wants to study how the leaves of plants communicate with each other and react to stress in order to survive.

When a plant experiences a high temperature, it loses water more quickly. Reddy has found that reactive oxygen species in plants can signal the stomata to close to help retain water. Before, researchers believed the stomatal responses in plants took up to one hour, but Reddy has found that the response can react in as little as one minute.

“The uniqueness of this study is that it focuses on light stress. In the past, people have studied bacteria, heat and cold stress, but there are still many missing aspects related to light stress,” Reddy said.

After completing his degree, Reddy hopes to use his research to find a way to alter the stomatal responses in plants so that the plants can balance water loss and carbon fixation.

“The long-term goal of this project is to build up stress-tolerant plants that enables better yield and better capabilities to withstand stress conditions in the field,” Reddy said.

Following graduation, Reddy hopes to conduct research and teach at an academic institution. Although he doesn’t know whether he will start a postdoctoral degree or begin teaching first, one thing is for sure — he will continue to research and identify what’s still unknown to widen the biochemical and genetic standpoint of knowledge of stomata responses in plants.

New faculty eager to enhance collaborative mission at Bond LSC

October 15, 2018 By Roger Meissen in Events and speakers Tags: Bing Yang, Ron Mittler, Wes Warren

Wes Warren (left), Bing Yang (middle) and Ron Mittler (right) recently joined Bond LSC as primary investigators. | photos by Erica Overfelt and Roger Meissen, Bond LSC

By Roger Meissen | Bond LSC

Like with any family, a new addition brings possibility and excitement.

For Bond LSC, three new faculty promise to enrich research at the University of Missouri by working together across disciplines. Ron Mittler, Wes Warren and Bing Yang all joined Bond LSC recently to continue their research careers.

Bond LSC Interim Director Walter Gassmann said these strategic hires are years in the making and represent how departments and centers come together with a unified goal for MU.

“These are some of the first hires we’ve completed specifically looking at how new faculty could bridge individual research strengths that exist on campus,” he said. “These scientists can bring those strengths together to go in a new direction, and Bond LSC is the perfect place for these faculty to achieve their goals.”

Each researcher comes with a reputation that precedes him. It only takes one look at the framed covers of Nature Magazine lined up in a row in Wes Warren’s office to see evidence of that. The comparative geneticist was recruited from Washington University and has published work in Nature that sequenced the genomes of animals from the orangutan and the gibbon to the elephant shark and the platypus.

“My passion is to crack the black box of the genome and try to find weird and unique traits of various animals,” Warren said. “It’s not enough now to sequence a genome and compare it to others, you have to dig deeper, do wet lab work and try to validate your findings.”

His shared appointment as a Bond LSC investigator and professor of genomics in the Department of Animal Sciences, College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, in conjunction with the School of Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine and the MU Informatics Institute, gives him the opportunity to more easily move his research forward.

“My thought is that I can act as a liaison between researchers in these areas,” he said. “I want to keep in mind trait evolution and use that divergence in traits to practice evolutionary comparative medicine to think about disease in humans and companion animals.”

Yang brings a different expertise from Iowa State University where he spent years studying bacterial diseases of rice. His joint appointment as a professor of plant sciences comes from a partnership with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis. His research began by looking at plant disease from the bacterial side, but has evolved to also study its host’s interaction.

“Over half the world’s population eats rice as a staple food and by understanding its basic biology we can engineer better rice varieties with disease resistance and yield improvements,” Yang said. “This joint appointment gives me a bigger scientific community and access to more tools to continue my former research while thinking about some high risk, high reward projects that no one has done before.”

Mittler brings a different expertise in plant science to Bond LSC. Most recently at the University of North Texas, his work focused on cell-to-cell communication and how plants respond to multiple stressors — like heat and drought — at the same time. To do this, Mittler studies proteins with unknown functions. One he identified in plants deals with reactive oxygen species, which is a type of oxygen that becomes activated and can cause damage within cells in its toxic forms.

“We don’t really know what 20 percent of the proteins in our body do and in plants it’s more than that,” he said. “One of them was very interesting to me because it responded to reactive oxygen species in Arabidopsis plants, and we found out that a close relative of this protein is found in humans and accumulates to high levels in cancer cells.”

This has led Mittler to expand his work into mammalian cells and will encourage partnerships outside of plant science. With the cancer connection in mind, Mittler has a joint appointment in the Department of Surgery in the School of Medicine

“This is one of the few places in the U.S. that has a medical school, a veterinary school, college of agriculture and a nuclear reactor, so you have a lot of resources available to you, and here I have access to crop fields I didn’t have before and people who do a lot of crop physiology,” Mittler said. “The biggest thing I’ve found here so far is that there is a big drive for collaboration and the walls and barriers between different departments are low. Not a lot of places have this kind of attitude.”

The emphasis on connections across disciplines is key to the larger research goals within the University of Missouri System.

“It’s the research community, the facilities and resources that convince excellent researchers like these to join our research enterprise, and Bond LSC is the perfect place to have faculty from five colleges bump into each other on a daily basis,” said Mark McIntosh, vice chancellor of research, graduate studies and economic development at MU and vice president of research and economic development for the UM System. “Collaborative research is more competitive when it comes to grant applications to federal agencies, and is more likely to lead to innovations and economic development. Our success with interdisciplinary collaborations — like those in the Bond LSC — is the motivation for our focus on building the Translational Precision Medicine Complex (TPMC). I look forward to seeing how our new Bond LSC investigators can build and nurture these partnerships.”

#IAmScience Ron Mittler

September 30, 2018 By Erica Overfelt in #IAmScience Tags: Ron Mittler

By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC

Ron Mittler always thought he would be a veterinarian, until he was exposed to the lab.

“I went to school to be a vet,” Mittler said. “I made the mistake of working in the lab to make money in the summer and I got hooked on research. I worked with plants and I realized it is the best job to have for me.”

That “mistake” has turned into a career of research and teaching in academia. The latest chapter in that journey started in July when Mittler joined Bond LSC as a professor of plant sciences at Mizzou.

Mittler’s research started with a focus on plants, digging into cell to cell signaling systems.

“I’m looking at how different cells within the same organism communicate with each other, how signals can be transferred and how plants respond to stress by activating cell-to-cell communication,” Mittler said. “For example, you take a plant and apply stress to one leaf to the entire plant will resist. But, I’m really interested in how plants acclimate to a combination of different stressors like drought and heat or heat and salinity together instead of looking at just one stressor.”

As Mittler has let the questions dictate his research, his foundation in plant signaling proteins has expanded beyond plants.

“I was only working on plants,” Mittler said. “I had a project discovering the unknown function of proteins in plants. About 20 percent of the proteins in our body, we don’t know what they do. My project was to try to figure out what all the proteins in plants do. It was very interesting to me, we found out a very close relative of a plant protein is in humans and accumulates cancer cells.”

This connection lends itself well to creating a bridge between his plant science research and research on cancer at MU’s School of Medicine. This potential collaboration and the opportunity to study plant stress in a crop setting swayed his decision to join MU. He comes from University of North Texas where he was a professor in their biological sciences department and earned his bachelors and masters in botany at Hebrew University. He then earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Rutgers

A key focus of Mittler’s past work has been on reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS can be found in biological processes in both plants and animals. Mittler shed significant light on the ROS wave, and the role the wave plays in stress response in plants. Essentially, it is a mechanism for cells to communicate where the ROS within a cell stimulate the cell next to it, creating a domino effect, or wave, that sends a message to nearby cells.

Mittler will be researching how these Reactive Oxygen Species and iron play a role in human disease.

“We are working on a group of proteins that regulate iron and Reactive Oxygen Species in cells,” Mittler said. “That is in relation to cancer or diabetes. Those proteins play a role in cancer cells. We are studying how and why these proteins are so important and trying to develop drugs that target these proteins.”

Questions may be the reason Mittler has taken so many turns in his research, but they are also what kept him motivated in research.

“It’s exciting, answering questions no one has answered,” Mittler said. “Like a little boy, it is tinkering with things and trying to figure out how things work. It is like detective work for me, seeing how plants work, how the body works.”