Prof. NP Harberd
Research Area
Comparative biology of mechanisms regulating land-plant growth and development
Research Description
Our research group has recently (August 2007) joined the department, having previously been located at the John Innes Centre, Norwich. The group's research interests focus on the genetic regulation of plant growth and development. Much of our work uses Arabidopsis thaliana as model genetic system. Over the last ten years we used Arabidopsis to reveal the nature and biological properties of the gibberellin-DELLA mechanism (the mechanism via which the plant growth hormone gibberellin promotes plant growth), and showed that a variant form of this mechanism causes the dwarfism characteristic of the high-yielding wheat varieties of the 'green revolution'. We also showed that the gibberellin-DELLA mechanism integrates the effects of multiple environmental signals, and that it provides plants with the capacity to regulate their growth in response to environmental change. More recently, we have been developing combined Arabidopsis genetic and genomic strategies for the molecular discovery of novel plant growth regulatory genes. We are also developing similar strategies for comparative studies of the acquisition of growth regulatory and developmental mechanisms during land-plant evolution. These latter studies use non-angiosperm genetic models (bryophtes, lycophytes, ferns etc). Essentially, we want to understand how angiosperm growth-regulatory mechanisms arose during evolution.
OPPORTUNITIES
We are rebuilding our research team following our recent re-location to Oxford and welcome contacts from prospective graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.
CURRENT PROJECTS
There are currently two interrelated areas of research in the lab:
- Determination of the role of the GA-DELLA mechanism in various aspects of plant biology.
- Genome-era approaches to understanding the evolution of land-plant growth-regulatory mechanisms. These studies will enable us to understand the acquisition of key hormonal, gene transcriptional and other regulatory modes that correspond to the major steps in land-plant evolution.
Harberd Group Members
Publications
(group publications since 1997)
Yasumura, Y., Crumpton-Taylor, M., Fuentes, S. & Harberd, N. P. (2007). Step-by-step acquisition of the gibberellin-DELLA growth-regulatory mechanism during land-plant evolution. Current Biology 17, 1225-1230.
Achard, P., Baghour, M., Chapple, A., Hedden, P., Van Der Straeten, D., Genschik, P., Moritz, T. & Harberd, N. P. (2007). The plant stress hormone ethylene controls floral transition via DELLA-dependent regulation of floral meristem-identity genes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104, 6484-6489.
Jiang, C., Gao, X., Liao, L., Harberd, N.P. & Fu, X. (2007). Phosphate starvation root architecture and anthocyanin accumulation responses are modulated by the gibberellin-DELLA signaling pathway in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology 145, 1460-1470.
Achard, P., Liao, L., Jiang, C., Desnos, T., Bartlett, J., Fu, X. & Harberd, N. P. (2007). DELLAs contribute to plant photomorphogenesis. Plant Physiology 143, 1163-1172.
Harberd, N. (2006). Seed to Seed: the secret life of plants. Bloomsbury (UK/USA).
Achard, P., Cheng, H., De Grauwe, L., Decat, J., Schoutteten, H., Moritz, T., Van Der Straeten, D., Peng, J. & Harberd, N. P. (2006). Integration of plant responses to environmentally activated phytohormonal signals. Science 311, 91-94.
Sablowski, R. & Harberd, N. P. (2005). Plant genes on steroids. Science 307, 1569-1570.
Alvey, L. & Harberd, N. P. (2005). DELLA proteins: integrators of multiple plant growth regulatory inputs? Physiologia Plantarum 123, 153-160.
Vriezen, W. H., Achard, P., Harberd, N. P. & Van Der Straeten, D. (2004). Ethylene-mediated enhancement of apical hook formation in etiolated Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings is gibberellin dependent. Plant Journal 37, 505-516.
Fu, X., Richards, D. E., Fleck, B., Xie, D., Burton, N. & Harberd, N. P. (2004). The Arabidopsis mutant sleepy1gar2-1 protein promotes plant growth by increasing the affinity of the SCFSLY1 E3 ubiquitin ligase for DELLA protein substrates. Plant Cell 16, 1406-1418.
Cheng, H., Qin, L., Lee, S., Fu, X., Richards, D. E., Cao, D., Luo, D., Harberd, N. P. & Peng, J. (2004). Gibberellin regulates Arabidopsis floral development via suppression of DELLA protein function. Development 131, 1055-1064.
Achard, P., Herr, A., Baulcombe, D. C. & Harberd, N. P. (2004). Modulation of floral development by a gibberellin-regulated microRNA. Development 131, 3357-3365.
Petty, L. M., Harberd, N. P., Carre, I. A., Thomas, B. & Jackson, S. D. (2003). Expression of the Arabidopsis gai gene under its own promoter causes a reduction in plant height in chrysanthemum by attenuation of the gibberellin response. Plant Science 164, 175-182.
Hynes, L. W., Peng, J., Richards, D. E. & Harberd, N. P. (2003). Transgenic expression of the Arabidopsis DELLA proteins GAI and gai confers altered gibberellin response in tobacco. Transgenic Research 12, 707-714.
Harberd, N. P. (2003). Relieving DELLA restraint. Science 299, 1853-1854.
Fu, X. & Harberd, N. P. (2003). Auxin promotes Arabidopsis root growth by modulating gibberellin response. Nature 421, 740-743.
Ait-ali, T., Rands, C. & Harberd, N. P. (2003). Flexible control of plant architecture and yield via switchable expression of Arabidopsis gai. Plant Biotechnology journal 1, 337-343.
Achard, P., Vriezen, W. H., Van Der Straeten, D. & Harberd, N. P. (2003). Ethylene regulates arabidopsis development via the modulation of DELLA protein growth repressor function. Plant Cell 15, 2816-2825.
Peng, J., Richards, D. E., Moritz, T., Ezura, H., Carol, P. & Harberd, N. P. (2002). Molecular and physiological characterization of Arabidopsis GAI alleles obtained in targeted Ds-tagging experiments. Planta 214, 591-596.
Peng, J. & Harberd, N. P. (2002). The role of GA-mediated signalling in the control of seed germination. Current opinion in plant biology 5, 376-381.
Lee, S., Cheng, H., King, K. E., Wang, W., He, Y., Hussain, A., Lo, J., Harberd, N. P. & Peng, J. (2002). Gibberellin regulates Arabidopsis seed germination via RGL2, a GAI/RGA-like gene whose expression is up-regulated following imbibition. Genes & Development 16, 646-658.
Fu, X., Richards, D. E., Ait-Ali, T., Hynes, L. W., Ougham, H., Peng, J. & Harberd, N. P. (2002). Gibberellin-mediated proteasome-dependent degradation of the barley DELLA protein SLN1 repressor. Plant Cell 14, 3191-3200.
Fleck, B. & Harberd, N. P. (2002). Evidence that the Arabidopsis nuclear gibberellin signalling protein GAI is not destabilised by gibberellin. Plant Journal 32, 935-947.
Richards, D. E., King, K. E., Ait-Ali, T. & Harberd, N. P. (2001). How gibberellin regulates plant growth and development: A Molecular Genetic Analysis of Gibberellin Signaling. Annual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology 52, 67-88.
King, K. E., Moritz, T. & Harberd, N. P. (2001). Gibberellins are not required for normal stem growth in Arabidopsis thaliana in the absence of GAI and RGA. Genetics 159, 767-776.
Fu, X., Sudhakar, D., Peng, J., Richards, D. E., Christou, P. & Harberd, N. P. (2001). Expression of Arabidopsis GAI in transgenic rice represses multiple gibberellin responses. Plant Cell 13, 1791-1802.
Desnos, T., Puente, P., Whitelam, G. C. & Harberd, N. P. (2001). FHY1: a phytochrome A-specific signal transducer. Genes andDevelopment 15, 2980-2990.
Richards, D. E., Peng, J. & Harberd, N. P. (2000). Plant GRAS and metazoan STATs: one family? Bioessays 22, 573-577.
Collett, C. E., Harberd, N. P. & Leyser, O. (2000). Hormonal interactions in the control of Arabidopsis hypocotyl elongation. Plant Physiology 124, 553-562.
Peng, J., Richards, D. E., Moritz, T., Cano-Delgado, A. & Harberd, N. P. (1999a). Extragenic suppressors of the Arabidopsis gai mutation alter the dose-response relationship of diverse gibberellin responses. Plant Physiology 119, 1199-1208.
Peng, J., Richards, D. E., Hartley, N. M., Murphy, G. P., Devos, K. M., Flintham, J. E., Beales, J., Fish, L. J., Worland, A. J., Pelica, F., Sudhakar, D., Christou, P., Snape, J. W., Gale, M. D. & Harberd, N. P. (1999b). 'Green revolution' genes encode mutant gibberellin response modulators. Nature 400, 256-261.
Ezura H., Higashi, K. & Harberd, N. P. (1999). Phytochrome B influences in-vitro shoot morphogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heyhn. Plant Biotechnology 16, 279-284.
Cowling, R. J. & Harberd, N. P. (1999). Gibberellins control Arabidopsis hypocotyl growth via regulation of cellular elongation. Journal of Experimental Botany 50, 1351-1357.
Harberd, N. P., King, K. E., Carol, P., Cowling, R. J., Peng, J. & Richards, D. E. (1998). Gibberellin: inhibitor of an inhibitor of...? Bioessays 20, 1001-1008.
Cowling, R. J., Kamiya, Y., Seto, H. & Harberd, N. P. (1998). Gibberellin dose-response regulation of GA4 gene transcript levels in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology 117, 1195-1203.
Peng, J. & Harberd, N. P. (1997). Transposon-associated somatic gai-loss sectors in Arabidopsis. Plant Science 130, 181-188.
Peng, J. & Harberd, N. P. (1997). Gibberellin deficiency and response mutations suppress the stem elongation phenotype of phytochrome-deficient mutants of Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology 113, 1051-1058.
Peng, J., Carol, P., Richards, D. E., King, K. E., Cowling, R. J., Murphy, G. P. & Harberd, N. P. (1997). The Arabidopsis GAI gene defines a signaling pathway that negatively regulates gibberellin responses. Genes and Development 11, 3194-3205.
Full Publication List (while at this department)
Kumar, S.V, Lucyshyn, D, Jaeger, K.E, Alos, E, Alvey, E, Harberd, N.P, Wigge, P.A. (2012) Transcription factor PIF4 controls the thermosensory activation of flowering Nature..
doi:10.1038/nature10928.
Gan, X, Stegle, O, Behr, J, Steffen, J.G, Drewe, P, Hildebrand, K.L, Lyngsoe, R, Schultheiss, S.J, Osborne, E.J, Sreedharan, V.T, Kahles, A, Bohnert, R, Jean, G, Derwent, P, Kersey, P, Belfield, E.J, Harberd, N.P, Kemen, E, Toomajian, C, Kover, P.X, Clark, R.M, Ratsch, G, Mott, R. (2011) Multiple reference genomes and transcriptomes for Arabidopsis thaliana Nature..
doi:10.1038/nature10414.
Sauret-Gueto, S, Calder, G, Harberd, N.P. (2011) Transient gibberellin application promotes Arabidopsis thaliana hypocotyl cell elongation without maintaining transverse orientation of microtubules on the outer tangential wall of epidermal cells Plant Journal..
doi:10.1111/j.1365-313X.2011.04817.x.
Harberd, N.P, Belfield, E, Yasumura, Y. (2009) The angiosperm gibberellin-GID1-DELLA growth regulatory mechanism: How an "inhibitor of an inhibitor" enables flexible response to fluctuating environments Plant Cell. 21 (5): pp 1328-1339.
doi:10.1105/tpc.109.066969.
Achard, P, Renou, J.-P, Berthome, R, Harberd, N.P, Genschik, P. (2008) Plant DELLAs Restrain Growth and Promote Survival of Adversity by Reducing the Levels of Reactive Oxygen Species Current Biology..
doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.04.034.
Navarro, L, Bari, R, Achard, P, Lison, P, Nemri, A, Harberd, N.P, Jones, J.D.G. (2008) DELLAs Control Plant Immune Responses by Modulating the Balance of Jasmonic Acid and Salicylic Acid Signaling Current Biology..
doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.03.060.
Jiang, C, Gao, X, Liao, L, Harberd, N.P, Fu, X. (2007) Phosphate starvation root architecture and anthocyanin accumulation responses are modulated by the gibberellin-DELLA signaling pathway in Arabidopsis Plant Physiology. 145 (4): pp 1460-1470.
doi:10.1104/pp.107.103788.
Funding
Our work (1997-2015) is funded by the BBSRC, The Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the EU and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
Collaborators
Prof. David Baulcombe, University of Cambridge.
Prof. Dominique Van Der Straeten, Ghent, Belgium.
Prof. Ian King, University of Nottingham.
Dr. Ioannis Ragoussis, WTCHG, Oxford.
Prof. Jinrong Peng, ICMB, Singapore.
Prof. John Snape, JIC, Norwich.
Prof. Jonathan Jones, Sainsbury Lab, Norwich.
Dr. Margaret Boulton, JIC, Norwich.
Prof. Ottoline Leyser, York.
Prof. Pascal Genschik, IBMP, Strasbourg, France.
Dr. Patrick Achard, IBMP, Strasbourg, France.
Prof. Richard Mott, WTCHG, Oxford.
Mr. Steve Reader, JIC, Norwich.
Dr. Thomas Moritz, Umeå, Sweden.
Dr. Toshi Foster, HortResearch, New Zealand.
Dr. Xiangdong Fu, Beijing, China.
Prof. Yuji Kamiya, RIKEN, Japan.