Diane C. Bassham

Associate Professor

Dr. Bassham, Associate Professor, received her B.Sc. (Honours) in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham, England. She received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Warwick, England. Dr. Bassham completed a post-doctoral appointment in the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, and joined the faculty at Iowa State University in 2001. In 1999, Dr. Bassham received the Anton Lang Memorial Research Excellence Award for post-doctoral research associates from Michigan State University.

Research Description

My research interests focus on understanding the biogenesis and functions of the plant vacuole. The vacuole is a large organelle that has diverse roles in maintenance of turgor, storage of proteins, ions and metabolites, and degradation of proteins and other macromolecules. A major research project in my lab involves the study of vacuolar autophagy, a pathway for uptake of proteins into the vacuole for degradation during environmental stress and senescence. Plants defective in this pathway are more sensitive to stress conditions and show premature leaf senescence. A second project is the analysis of the vesicle trafficking pathway delivering newly-synthesized proteins to the vacuole. Both projects involve cell and molecular approaches combined with genetic analyses to determine the function of individual proteins in the respective pathways.

Contact Information:

1035B Carver Co-Lab

Ames, IA 50011-3650

515-294-7461 voice

515-294-1337 fax

Education:

B.Sc. - Biochemistry, First Class (Honours), University of Birmingham, England, 1990

Ph.D. - Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, England, 1993

Web Site:

http://bassham.public.iastate.edu/mainpage.htm

• Xiong Y, AL Contento, NQ Phan and DC Bassham. 2007. Degradation of oxidized proteins by autophagy during oxidative stress in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol 143:291-299.
• Xiong Y, AL Contento and DC Bassham. 2007. Disruption of autophagy results in constitutive oxidative stress in Arabidopsis. Autophagy In press.
• Bassham DC, M Laporte, F Marty, Y Moriyasu, Y Ohsumi, LJ Olsen and K Yoshimoto. 2006. Autophagy in development and stress responses of plants. Autophagy 2:2-11.
• Leon RG, DC Bassham and MDK Owen. 2006. Germination and proteome analyses reveal intra-specific variation in seed dormancy regulation in common waterhemp (Amaranthus tuberculatus). Weed Sci 54:305-315.
• Leon RG, DC Bassham and MDK Owen. 2006. Inheritance of deep seed dormancy and stratification-mediated dormancy alleviation in Amaranthus tuberculatus. Seed Science Res 16:193-202.
• Contento AL, Y Xiong and DC Bassham. 2005. Visualization of autophagy in Arabidopsis using the fluorescent dye monodansylcadaverine and a GFP-ATG8e fusion protein. Plant J 42:598-608.
• Xiong Y, AL Contento and DC Bassham. 2005. AtATG18a is required for the formation of autophagosomes during nutrient stress and senescence in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant J 42:535-546.
• Chen Y, Y-K Shin and DC Bassham. 2005. YKT6 is a core constituent of membrane fusion machineries at the Arabidopsis trans-Golgi network. J Mol Biol 350:92-101.
• Contento AL, SJ Kim and DC Bassham. 2004. Transcriptome profiling of the response of Arabidopsis thaliana suspension culture cells to sucrose starvation. Plant Physiol 135:2330-2347.
• Bassham DC. 2002. Golgi-independent trafficking of macromolecules to the plant vacuole. Adv Bot Res 38:65-92.
• Sanderfoot AA, V Kovaleva, DC Bassham and NV Raikhel. 2001. Interactions between syntaxins identify at least five SNARE complexes within the Golgi/prevacuolar system of the Arabidopsis cell. Mol Biol Cell 12:3733-3743.
• Bassham DC and NV Raikhel. 2000. Unique features of the plant vacuolar sorting machinery. Curr Opin Cell Biol 12:491-495.
• Bassham DC and NV Raikhel. 2000. Plant cells are not just green yeast. Plant Physiol 122:999-1002.
• Bassham DC, AA Sanderfoot, V Kovaleva, H Zheng and NV Raikhel. 2000. AtVPS45p complex formation at the trans-Golgi network. Mol Biol Cell 11:2255-2265.