Iowa State University
Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology
1210 Molecular Biology Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3260
Phone: 515-294-7322
Fax: 515-294-6755
Email:
Philip W. Becraft
Professor
Dr. Becraft, Associate Professor, received his B.A. in Botany from the University of Montana, Missoula, his M.S. in Agronomy from Montana State University, Bozeman, and his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley. Upon graduation, Dr. Becraft completed an NSF postdoctoral Fellow/Courtesy Assistant Professor position in the Horticulture Science Department at the University of Florida, Gainesville. In 1996, Dr. Becraft joined the faculty of Iowa State University as Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2002.
Research Description
My research interests center on the broad topic of cell fate specification. Our work focuses on maize endosperm development as an experimental system and our main approach is molecular genetics and genomics. The endosperm is an attractive system because of its importance to world food and industry, and because of its amenability to genetic analysis. Our approach is to identify genes important for endosperm development by their mutant phenotype, then use a combination of molecular genetics, genomics, biochemistry and cell biology to understand the function of the gene product. We have established that a genetic hierarchy regulates aleurone development and several of the relevant genes have been isolated and a putative pathway is beginning to take shape.
Contact Information:
2116 Molecular Biology
Ames, IA 50011-3260
515-294-2903 voice
515-294-6755 fax
Education:
B.A. - Botany, University of Montana, Missoula, 1980
M.S. - Agronomy, Montana State University, Bozeman, 1987
Ph.D. - Genetics, University of California, Berkeley, 1992
Becraft, P. W.. 2007. Aleurone cell development.. In "Endosperm - Development and Molecular biology" :45-56.
Cao, X., Costa, L. M., Biderre-Petit, C., Kbhaya, B., Dey, N., Perez, P., McCarty, D. R., Gutierrez-Marcos, J. F., and Becraft, P. W.. 2007. Abscisic acid and stress signals induce Viviparous1 expression in seed and vegetative tissues of maize. . Plant Physiol. 143:720-731.
Cao, X., Li, K., Suh, S.-G., Guo, T., and Becraft, P. W.. 2005. Molecular analysis of the CRINKLY4 gene family in Arabidopsis thaliana. Planta 220:645-657.
Lai, J., Dey, N., Kim, C.-S., Bharti, A. K., Rudd, S., Mayer, K. F. X., Larkins, B., Becraft, P., and Messing, J.. 2004. Characterization of the maize endosperm transcriptome and its comparison to the rice genome. Genome Research 14:1932-1937.
Becraft, P. W., Li, K., Dey, N., and Asuncion-Crabb, Y. T.. 2002. The maize dek1gene functions in embryonic pattern formation and in cell fate specification. Development 129:5217-5225.
Becraft, P. W., Kang, S.-H., and Suh, S.-G.. 2001. The maize CRINKLY4 receptor kinase controls a cell-autonomous differentiation response. Plant Physiol. 127:486-496.
Jin, P., Guo, T. and Becraft, P. W.. 2000. The maize CR4 receptor-like kinase mediates a growth factor-like differentiation response. Genesis 27:104-116.
