Jack W. Blount
Plant Biology Division
Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation
2510 Sam Noble Parkway
Ardmore, OK  73401 USA

Phone: (580)224-6640
Email: jwblount@noble.org

Current Position

• Research Associate(1998-present). Plant Biology Division. The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, OK.

• Functional characterization of glycosyltransferases and P450s from the model legume Medicago truncatula.
• Assessing changes in Medicago truncatula cell suspension culture fitness over time as it relates to cell viability, stability, and inducibility by the biotic elicitors yeast extract and methyl jasmonate.
• HPLC method development for the efficient analysis of a variety of isoflavones, flavonols, and anthocyanins, as well as enzyme activities related to these compounds.

• B.S., Biomedical Science,Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 1985.

1. He, X.-Z., Li, W.-S., Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. (2008). Regioselective synthesis of plant flavonoid glycosides in E.coli. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 80, 253-260.
2. Modolo, L., Blount, J.W., Achnine, L., Naoumkina, M., Wang, X. and Dixon, R.A. (2007) A functional genomics approach to (iso)flavonoid glycosylation in the model legume Medicago truncatula. Plant Mol. Biol. 64, 499-518.
3. Liu, C.-J., Deavours, B.E., Richard, S.B., Ferrer, J.-L., Blount, J.W., Huhman, D., Dixon, R.A. and Noel, J.P. (2006). Structural basis for dual functionality of isoflavonoid O-methyltransferases in the evolution of plant defense responses. Plant Cell 18, 3656-3669.
4. Tian, L., Blount, J.W., and Dixon, R.A. (2006) Phenylpropanoid glycosyltransferases from osage orange (Maclura Pomifera) fruit. FEBS Lett 580, 6915-6920.
5. Shao, H., He, X., Achnine, L., Blount, J.W., Dixon, R.A., and Wang, X. (2005). Crystal Structrues of a Multifunctional Triterpene/Flavonoid glycosyltransferase from Medicago truncatula. Plant Cell 17, 3141-3154.
6. Achnine, L., Huhman, D.V., Sumner, L.W., Farag, M.A., Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. (2005) Genomics-based selection and functional characterization of triterpene glycosyltransferases from the model legume Medicago truncatula. Plant Journal 41, 875-887.
7. Suzuki, H., Reddy, M.S.S., Naoumkina, M., Aziz, N., May, G.D., Huhman, D.V., Sumner, L.W., Blount, J.W., Mendes, P., and Dixon, R.A. (2005). Methyl jasmonate and yeast elicitor induce differential transcriptional and metabolic re-programming in cell suspension cultures of the model legume Medicago truncatula. Planta 220, 696-707.
8. Suzuki, H., Xia, Y., Cameron, R., Shadle, G., Blount, J., Lamb, C. and Dixon, R.A. (2004). Signals for Local and Systemic Responses of Plants to Pathogen Attack. Journal of Experimental Botany 55(395), 169-179.
9. Xia, Y., Suzuki, H., Borevitz, J., Blount, J., Guo, Z., Patel, K., Dixon, R.A. and Lamb, C. (2004). An extracellular aspartic protease functions in Arabidopsis disease resistance signaling. EMBO Journal 23, 980-988 .
10. Chen, F., Duran, A.L., Blount, J.W., Sumner, L.W. and Dixon, R.A. (2003). Profiling phenolic metabolites in transgenic alfalfa modified in lignin biosynthesis. Phytochemistry 64, 1013-1021.
11. Kourteva, G., He, X.-Z., Podstolski, A., Blount, J.W., Belanger, F.C., Pak, F.E., French, J., Havkin-Frenkel, D. and Dixon, R.A. (2003). A 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde synthase is encoded by a cysteine-protease-like gene in the orchid Vanilla planifolia. Plant Physiology, submitted.
12. Salles, I.I., Blount, J.W., Dixon, R.A. and Schubert, K. (2002). Phytoalexin induction and B-1,3-glucanase activities in Colletotrichum trifolii infected leaves of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 61, 89-101.
13. Podstolski, A., Havkin-Frenkel, D., Malinowski, J., Blount, J.W., Kourteva, G. and Dixon, R.A. (2002). Unusual 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde synthase activity from tissue cultures of the vanilla orchid Vanilla planifolia. Phytochemistry 61: 611-620.
14. Xia, Y., Borevitz, J., Blount, J.W., Dixon, R.A. and Lamb, C.J. (2002). Biopanning by activation tagging. Recent Advances in Phytochemistry 36, 111-123.
15. Liu, C-J., Blount, J.W., Steele, C.L. and Dixon, R.A. (2002). Bottlenecks for  metabolic engineering of isoflavone glycoconjugates in Arabidopsis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99(22), 14578-14583.
16. Blount, J.W., Masoud, S., Sumner, L.W., Huhman, D. and Dixon, R.A. (2002). Over-expression of cinnamate 4-hydroxylase leads to increased accumulation of acetosyringone in elicited tobacco cell-suspension cultures. Planta 214: 902-910.
17. Chen, F., Parvathi, K., Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. (2001). Chemical syntheses of caffeoyl and 5-OH coniferyl aldehydes and alcohols and determination of lignin O-methyltransferase activities in dicot and monocot species. Phytochemistry 58, 1035-1042.
18. Korth, K.L., Blount, J.W., Chen, F., Rasmussen, S., Lamb, C. and Dixon, R.A. (2001). Changes in phenylpropanoid metabolites with homology-dependent silencing of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and its somatic reversion in tobacco. Physiologia Plantarum 111, 137-143.
19. Parvathi, K., Chen, F., Guo, D., Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. (2001). Substrate preferences of O-methyltransferases in alfalfa suggest new pathways for 3-O-methylation of monolignols. Plant Journal 25(2),  93-102.
20. Guo, D., Chen, F., Inoue, K.,  Blount, J. and Dixon, R.A. (2001). Downregulation of caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase and caffeoyl CoA 3-O-methyltransferase in transgenic alfalfa:  Impacts on lignin structure and implications for the biosynthesis of guaiacyl and syringyl lignin. Plant Cell 13, 73-88.
21. Borevitz, J., Xia, Y., Blount, J.W., Dixon, R.A. and Lamb, C. (2000). Activation tagging identifies a conserved MYB regulator of phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. Plant Cell 12, 2383-2393.
22. Blount, J.W., Korth, K.L., Masoud, S.A., Rasmussen, S., Lamb, C. and Dixon, R.A. (2000). Altering expression of cinnamic acid 4-hydroxylase in transgenic plants provides evidence for a feedback loop at the entry point into the phenylpropanoid pathway. Plant Physiology 122, 107-116.
23. Howles, P.A., Masoud, S.A., Blount, J.W., Rasmussen, S., Lamb, C. and Dixon, R.A. (1998). Overexpression of L-phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and cinnamate 4-hydroxylase in tobacco cell suspension cultures. In Plant Biotechnology and In Vitro Biology in the 21st Century, eds A. Altman, M. Ziv and S. Izhar, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 297-301.
24. Sewalt, V. J. H., Ni, W., Blount, J. W., Jung, H. G., Masoud, S. A., Howles, P. A., Lamb, C. and Dixon, R. A. (1997) Reduced lignin content and altered lignin composition in transgenic tobacco down-regulated in expression of L-phenylalanine ammonia-lyase or cinnamate 4-hydroxylase. Plant Physiology 115, 41-50.
25. Ni, W., Sewalt, V. J. H., Korth, K. L., Blount, J. W., Ballance, G. M. and Dixon, R. A. (1996). Stress responses in alfalfa. XXI. Activation of caffeic acid 3-0 -methyltransferase and caffeoyl coenzyme A 3-0-methyltransferase genes does not contribute to changes in metabolite accumulation in elicitor-treated cell-suspensions cultures. Plant Physiology 112, 717-726.
26. Blount, J. W. and Paiva, N. L. The natural alfalfa phytoalexin (-)-medicarpin and structurally related compounds as inhibitors of phytopathogenic fungi. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology. (Submitted 9-22-95).
27. Blount, J.W., Dixon, R. A. and Paiva, N. L. (1992). Stress responses in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) XVI. Antifungal activity of medicarpin and its biosynthetic precursors; implications for the genetic manipulation of stress metabolites. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 41, 333-349.
28. Edwards, R., Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R. A. (1991). Glutathione and elicitation of the phytoalexin response in legume cell cultures. Planta 184, 403-409.

1. Generation and analysis of expressed sequence tags from a medicinal plant, kudzu (Pueraria lobata), root tissues. XianZhi He, Jack W. Blount, Ji He, Patrick Zhao and Richard A. Dixon.  Phytochemical Society of North America. Pullman, WA, 2008.
2. Expression and in vitro characterization of eight Medicago truncatula (iso)flavonoid glycosyltransferases. Blount, J.W., Modolo, L.V., Achnine, L. and Dixon, R.A. American Society of Plant Biologists, Chicago, IL., 2007.
3. The expression profile of eight (iso)flavonoid glycosyltransferases from Medicago truncatula and biochemical characterization of UGT78G1. Modolo, L.V., Blount, J.W., Wang, X. and Dixon, R.A. American Society of Plant Biologists, Chicago, IL, 2007.
4. Regioselective production of plant flavonoid glycosides in E.coli.  Xian-Zhi He, Wen-Sheng Li, Jack W. Blount and Richard A. Dixon. Gordon Research Conferences. Tilton, NH, 2007.
5. Genetic engineering of plant natural product pathway.  Dixon, R.A., Blount, J.W., He, X.Z., Pang, Y.Z., Peel, G.J. and Tian, L.  Annual meeting of Phytochemical Society of Europe, Helsinki, Finland, 2007.
6. Functional and structural genomics for gene discovery and metabolic engineering in the phenylpropanoid pathway.  Dixon, R.A., Deavours, B., Blount, J.W., He, X.Z., Modolo, L., Naoumkina, M., Pang, Y.Z., Peel, G., Tian, L. and Wang, X.Q. XXIII International conference on polyphenols, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 2006.
7. Purification, crystallization and mutational analysis of the plant natural product glycosyltransferase UGT71G1.  He, X.Z., Shao, H., Achnine, L., Blount, J.W., Dixon, R.A. and Wang, X.Q.Annual Meeting of  Phytochemical Society of North America.  La Jolla, CA. USA, 2005. 
8. Functional characterization of two Medicago truncatula natural product glycosyltransferases. Blount, J.W., Achnine, L. and Dixon, R.A. Phytochemical Society of North America, San Diego, CA, 2005.
9. The functional characterization of Medicago truncatula glycosyltransferases involved in natural product biosynthesis. Blount, J.W., Achnine, L. and Dixon, R.A. American Society of Plant Biologists, Orlando, FL., 2004.
10. Functional characterization of Medicago truncatula glycosyltransferases in relation to natural product biosynthesis. Blount , J.W., Achnine, L. and Dixon, R.A. Phytochemical Society of North America, Peoria, Ill., 2003.
11. Profiling phenolic metabolites in transgenic alfalfa modified in lignin biosynthesis. Chen, F., Duran, A., Blount, J.W., Sumner, L.W. and Dixon, R.A. Second Oklahoma Minisymposium in Molecular Plant Biology, Stillwater, OK, 2003.
12. Genetic manipulation of PAL and C4H enzymatic activity affects the levels of soluble and wall-bound phenolics in transgenic tobacco: A comparative study. Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. Second Oklahoma Minisymposium in Molecular Plant Biology, Stillwater, OK, 2003.
13. Elicitation of Medicago truncatula cell suspension cultures for functional genomics of natural products pathways. Jackson, L. Blount, J.W., Suzuki, H., Aziz, N., May, G. and Dixon, R.A. Second Oklahoma Minisymposium in Molecular Plant Biology, Stillwater, OK, 2003.
14. Structural biology study of isoflavonoid phytoalexin biosynthesis. Wang, X. He, X.Z., Liu, S., Lin, J., Blount, J.W., Deavours, B. and Dixon, R. Second Oklahoma Minisymposium in Molecular Plant Biology, Stillwater, OK, 2003.
15. Analysis of phenylpropanoid metabolites in transgenic alfalfa using GC/MS and LC/MS. Chen, F., Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. American Society of Plant Biologists, Denver, CO, 2002.
16. Genetic manipulation of PAL and C4H enzymatic activity affects the levels of soluble and wall-bound phenolics in transgenic tobacco: A comparative study. Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. American Society of Plant Biologists, Denver, CO, 2002.
17. Metabolic engineering of isoflavonoid and flavonoid neutraceuticals. Liu, C.J., Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. Keystone Symposium, Breckenridge, USA, April 2001.
18. Changes in phenylpropanoid metabolites in transgenic alfalfa upon down-regulation of caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase and caffeoyl CoA 3-O-methyltransferase. Chen, F., Guo, D., Parvathi, K., Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. Phytochemical Society of North America, Oklahoma City, OK, August 4, 2001.
19. Biopanning by activation tagging. Yiji, X., Borevitz, J., Blount, J.W., Dixon, R.A. and Lamb, C. Phytochemical Society of North America, Oklahoma City, OK, August 4, 2001.
20. Metabolomics: Metabolite profiling of Medicago truncatula using Mass Spectrometry. Huhman, D.V., Blount, J.W., Dixon, R.A. and Sumner, L.W. American Society of Plant Biologists, Providence, R.I., 2001.
21. A new model for biosynthesis of monolignols: independent pathways to guaiacyl and syringyl units. Guo, D., Chen, F., Parvathi, K., Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. American Society of Plant Biologists, Providence, R.I., 2001.
22. Accumulation of acetosyringone in elicited tobacco cell suspension cultures expressing an alfalfa cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H) transgene. Blount, J.W., Sumner, L.W., Huhman, D.V. and Dixon, R.A. American Society of Plant Biologists, Providence, R.I., 2001.
23. Metabolic engineering of isoflavonoid biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana. Liu, C.J., Steele, C.L., Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. American Society of Plant Physiologists, San Diego, CA, July 2000.
24. Primary evidence for involvement of elicitors in the alfalfa/Colletotrichum trifolii interaction. Salles, I.B., Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. American Society of Plant Physiologists, San Diego, CA., 2000.
25. Genetic manipulation of the nutraceutical genistein in Arabidopsis. Blount, J.W., Steele, C. and Dixon, R. American Society of Plant Physiologists, San Diego, CA., 2000.
26. Post-transcriptional control and metabolic channeling: limitations to phenylpropanoid production in plant cell cultures? Dixon, R.A., Rasmussen, S., Korth, K., Reddy, J.T. and Blount, J.W. IX International Congress on Plant Tissue and Cell Culture, Jerusalem, Israel, June 1998.
27. Altering expression of cinnamic acid 4-hydroxylase in transgenic plants reveals features of the regulatory architecture of the phenylpropanoid pathway. Blount, J.W., Masoud, S.A., Korth, K.L., Fahrendorf, T., Sewalt, V.J.H., Rasmussen, S. and Dixon, R.A. 5th International Congress of Plant Molecular Biology, Republic of Singapore, 1997.
28. Properties and genetic manipulation of lignin o-methyltransferases. Sewalt, V.J.H., Inoue, K., Ballance, G.M., Ni, W., Blount, J.W. and Dixon, R.A. 5th International Congress of Plant Molecular Biology, Republic of Singapore, 1997.
29. Genetic manipulation of lignin content and composition in transgenic tobacco: Evidence against a single pathway for monolignol formation fromL-phenylalanine. Dixon, R.A., Sewalt,V.J.H., Ni, W., Blount, J.W., Jung, H.,Masoud, S., Korth, K. and Lamb, C. Second International Wood Biotechnology Symposium, Canberra, Australia, 1997.
30. Biotechnological improvement of alfalfa nutritive quality by anti-sense expression of COMT and CCOMT, methylating enzymes in lignin biosynthesis. Sewalt, V. J. H., Blount, J. W. and Dixon, R. A. Thirty-fifth North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1996.
31. Metabolic engineering of lignin through flux control in the phenylpropanoid biosynthetic pathway. Sewalt, V. J. H., Blount, J. W. and Dixon, R. A. European Society for Agronomy, Veldhoven-Wageningen, The Netherlands, 1996.
32. A comparison between the alfalfa phytoalexin (-)-medicarpin and structurally related compounds as inhibitors of phytopathogenic fungi. Blount, J. W., Dixon, R. A., VanEtten, . D. and Paiva, N. L. American Phytopathological Society, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1994.
33. Phytoalexin biosynthesis in alfalfa : Potential for manipulation of medicarpin stereochemistry. Paiva, N. L., Blount, J. W., Guo, L. and Dixon, R. A. Thirty-fourth North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference, Geulph, Ontario, Canada, 1994.
34. Effects of the alfalfa phytoalexin medicarpin and structurally related compounds on growth of phytopathogenic fungi. Blount, J. W., VanEtten, H. D., Dixon, R. A. and Paiva, N. L. American Phytopathological Society, Nashville, Tennessee, 1993.
35. Manipulation of isoflavone reductase: Prospects for improving disease resistance in alfalfa. Paiva, N. L., Blount, J. W. and Dixon, R. A. American Chemical Society, San Francisco, California, 1992.
36. Effects of the alfalfa phytoalexin medicarpin and related biosynthetic intermediates on phytopathogenic fungal mycelial growth. Blount, J. W., Paiva, N. L. and Dixon, R. A. American Phytopathological Society/Mycological Society of America Joint Meeting, Portland, Oregon, 1992.
37. cDNA cloning, characterization and manipulation of isoflavone reductase, a key enzyme in phytoalexin biosynthesis in alfalfa. Paiva, N. L., Blount, J. W., Edwards, R. and Dixon, R. A. Third International Congress of Plant Molecular Biology, Tucson, Arizona, 1991.
38. Effects of the alfalfa phytoalexin medicarpin and related biosynthetic intermediates on phytopathogenic fungal mycelial growth. Blount, J. W., Paiva, N. L. and Dixon, R. A. 80th Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Academy of Science, Durant, Oklahoma, 1991. (Paper).
39. Glutathione as an elicitor of phytoalexin biosynthesis in legume cell suspension cultures. Edwards, R.,, Orzech, K. A., Blount, J. W. and Dixon, R. A. America Society of Plant Physiologists Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, 1989.