Shanxi Agricultural University Visitor Professor Donald Grierson*



★特约稿件

Shanxi Agricultural University Visitor Professor Donald Grierson*

Donald Grierson

(School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, LEICS LE12 5RD, UK)

Nihao! My name is Don Grierson. I am an Emeritus Professor at the University of Nottingham and a visiting professor at Zhejiang University and Shanxi Agricultural University. I am writing this message to introduce myself to you, so that you know who I am if you see me walking around the Campus.

I retired from full-time work in the UK in 2010 and now I visit China twice each year with my wife Liz. I give a few lectures, discuss research ideas, and help colleagues write up the results of their research for publication in English in international research Journals.

I was trained as a Biologist, with particular interests in Biochemistry, Genetics and Plant Physiology, first at the University of East Anglia, England, for my BSc and then at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, for my PhD, where I studied RNA synthesis in developing leaves. I married Liz at age 19, and I was lucky enough to be appointed as an assistant Lecturer at the University of Nottingham, UK, on Septemberst1971, at the age of 25. At that time we had three children (Claire, David & Ellen) and the fourth (Michael) arrived two years later.

Since my school days I have always been interested in Plant Sciences; not drawing them, or knowing their names, but understanding how they worked. In my research I discovered several plant genes, worked out their function, and developed methods for genetic engineering of new varieties. I chose to work on the problem of ripening in tomato, because i) it was interesting (changes in colour, flavour, texture, aroma, problems of storage and shelf-life, good genetics) and it was nutritionally and economically important； ii) Although we did not have much equipment I did have access to controlled environment rooms and could grow plants all-year round, which meant that I could work fast； iii) not many other people were working on the problem； iv) I believed that new thinking and methodology was applicable to the problems we studied and we could make good progress； v) I could see that what we learned in tomato could probably be applied to many other crops.

I worked at Nottingham’s Sutton Bonington Campus, called SB. The first 10 years were the hardest, so it was good that I was determined and passionate about my work. I was never really sure how successful I would be; I just believed that if I had good ideas and worked hard enough, and perhaps thought a bit differently, then I had a chance to succeed. Vision, dedication, self-belief and hard work are the key things you need. Oh, and money for experiments, and good students and colleagues to help turn your ideas into reality.

Over the years I was lucky enough to have over 100 scientists, more than half of them PhD students, come to work with me during my career at SB. Some of them now have academic positions in Chongqing, Taigu, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, France, Canada, USA, Mexico, England, Scotland. More than one dozen of these researchers were from China, either as PhD students, research visitors, or post-docs. At one time at SB we had people from 13 different countries in my lab. I applied for around 200 competitive grants over 40 years and was successful in getting about 50 of them. This took a lot of time in the evenings and weekends but it meant that eventually I had sufficient funds to pay salaries, buy equipment, and pay the cost of expensive consumables that we needed for experiments. And we wrote lots of papers about our research, and went to many conferences around the world to speak about our work. I personally gave well over 200 invited talks to Universities, Institutes, and national and international conferences. But success took a long time; I had to learn patience and to overcome disappointments.

In order to speed up our research we collaborated with an industrial lab in a company now called Syngenta. Their scientist were very smart and helpful, we had access to more and better equipment and were able to learn important new techniques faster. At SB we were the first to demonstrate that ripening involves changes in plant gene expression. We cloned, sequenced, and identified several important ripening genes, including those coding for the enzymes polygalacturonase, pectinesterase, phytoene synthase (This was in the days when it could take 1～3 years to do this for a single gene! Nowadays you can sequences 25 000 in a few days!). We identified the genes responsible for the enzyme ACC oxidase, which catalyses the last step in the synthesis of the plant hormone ethylene, using a novel antisense (gene silencing) approach. We characterized several gene promoters, made many transgenic plants, and showed that the genetic modifications we made were stably inherited. With Syngenta (then called Zeneca), we developed the first genetically modified (GM) processed tomato food that was sold on both sides of the Atlantic. At first this was very successful but when people began to criticize GM foods (I believe without any merit or real justification for their criticisms) the product was withdrawn from sale. Apart from this problem, however, the GM research that we did taught us a very great deal about plant physiology, plant biochemistry and genetics. The ACC oxidase gene (ACO) work was a major discovery since neither the gene nor the enzyme had been identified or characterized before and ethylene is important throughout plant development, stress responses, ripening and leaf and flower senescence and spoilage. We went on to show there were several different genes for ACO and identifed a transcription factor that controls the expression of the ACC oxidase in ripening fruit. We also showed that by reducing expression of the ACO gene by patial silencing we could reduce the rate of deterioration of fruit, prolong storage life and reduce waste. But, there is still much more to do! We were one of the first groups to discover co-suppression or posttranscriptional gene silencing in plants, and proposed that double stranded RNA might be involved in gene silencing in1991. Based this idea, we tested the silencing efficiency of transgene construct with inverted repeats, and subsequently showed strong silencing with high frequency in 1998. We then provided the evidence that siRNA from the transgene directed the cleavage of target mRNA.

During my time at Nottingham I was promoted to Lecturer, Reader, Professor, and eventually Head of Department, and I was the founding head of the new School of Biosciences at the SB Campus in 2000. In 1990 I was awarded a research medal by the Royal Agricultural Society of England for “outstanding research in Agriculture; in 2000 I was made an honorary doctor of science at the university of Toulouse, France; in 2001 I received the Bertebos Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy for Agriculture & Forestry for “pioneering research in modern plant biotechnolgy”, and in 2000 I was made OBE by the British Cabinet Office, awarded by Queen Elizabeth II. (OBE stands for Officer of the Order of the British Empire, which is rather an old-fashioned title, since the UK no longer has an Empire). Note that this recognition came 25～30 years after I started my project!

The University built us a new Plant Sciences building, opened in 2002 by the UK Minister for Science. In 2000 I was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society, (an Academician) and in 2002 I became Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, for the whole of Nottingham University. I retired from full-time work in 2010, after nearly 40 years. I can recommend a University career to anyone. Universities in the UK are meritocratic. That means that no matter who you are, or whatever your background, your career is determined by how hard you work, and how successful you are, not who you know. You have the chance to follow your dream, to ask, and try and answer questions nobody has asked before, and you can take on any challenge that you choose. Oh, and it’s fun!

Recieved：2015-12-11

Author：Donald Grierson (1945-), Professor, FRS. Research area: the physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology of fruit ripening; posttranscriptional gene silencing.

* In November 2015 Professor Don (Donald) Grierson was awarded the Da Bei Nong International Biotechnology Prize