Dixon Lab
Research
The Dixon laboratory takes multidisciplinary approaches to research the biosynthesis and genetic manipulation of plant natural products. We are interested in both basic and applied aspects of the molecular biology of secondary metabolism. The model systems Medicago truncatula and Arabidopsis thaliana are used for basic studies, and alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is our primary target species for application.
Much of our work centers on the use of molecular genetic and genomics approaches to identify genes that will be valuable for improvement of natural product-based plant traits. The traits targeted are ones that improve: the health of the plant; the health of ruminant animals that consume forage crops; human health (nutraceuticals and botanicals); the environment.
The lab also has a strong background in plant biochemistry and, through collaborations with chemists and structural biologists, is aiming to understand the molecular basis of the enzyme specificity that leads to the more than 200,000 different natural products collectively synthesized by plants.
Personnel
Blount, J. W., Ferruzzi, M., Raftery, D., Pasinetti, G. M., & Dixon, R. A. (2012). Enzymatic synthesis of substituted epicatechins for bioactivity studies in neurological disorders. Biochemical and Biophysical Communications, 417, 457-461 doi:10.1016/j.bbrc.2011.11.139.
Chen, F., Tobimatsu, Y., Havkin-Frenkel, D., Dixon, R. A., & Ralph, J. (2012). A polymer of caffeyl alcohol in plant seeds. PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), January, doi:10.1073/pnas.1120992109.
Shen, H., He, X-Z., Poovaiah, C.R., Wuddineh, W.A., Ma, W., Mann, D.G.J., Abercrombie, L., Wang, H., Jackson, L. A., Tang, Y., Stewart, C.N., Chen, F., & Dixon, R. A. (2012). Functional characterization of the switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) R2R3-MYB transcription factor PvMYB4 for improvement of lignocellulosic feedstocks. New Phytologist, 193, 121-136.
Lee, Y., Chen, F., Dixon, R. A., & Voit, E.O. (2011). Integrative analysis of transgenic alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) suggests new metabolic control mechanisms for monolignol biosynthesis. PloS Computational Biology, May, doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002047.
Dien, B. S., Miller, D. J., Hector, R. E., Dixon, R. A., Chen, F., McCaslin, M., Reisen, P., Sarath, G., & Cotta, M. L. (2011). Enhancing alfalfa conversion efficiencies for production of sugars and ethanol by altering lignin composition. Bioresource Technology, 102, 6479-6486.
Search PubMed- understanding lignin biosynthesis and genetic modification of lignin in alfalfa and switchgrass;
- understanding condensed tannin biosynthesis and genetic introduction of condensed tannins in alfalfa;
- functional genomics of plant trichomes;
- biosynthesis of C-glycosyl isoflavones in kudzu;
- genetic modification of galactomannan gum in guar;
- engineering resistance to cotton root rot in alfalfa; and
- grape seed polyphenols and Alzheimer's disease
- March 29, 2010
Michigan State University
- East Lansing, MI
Rick Dixon (Invited Seminar Speaker)
- East Lansing, MI
- April 19-22, 2010
- 32nd Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals
- Clearwater Beach, FL
Rick Dixon (invited speaker)
Hui Shen
Luis Escamilla-Trevino
- Clearwater Beach, FL
- April 29 - May 1, 2010
- Colorado State University
- Fort Collins, CO
Rick Dixon (Invited Speaker)
- Fort Collins, CO
- May 5-8, 2010
- North Carolina State University NSF SAB Panel
- Raleigh, NC
Rick Dixon
- Raleigh, NC
- May 11-13, 2010
- Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources (BANR)
- Washington, DC
Rick Dixon (Invited Speaker)
- Washington, DC
- May 20-21, 2010
- BASF Plant Science
- Raleigh, NC
Rick Dixon (Invited Speaker)
- Raleigh, NC
- May 27-29, 2010
- University of California, Davis
- Davis, CA
Rick Dixon (Invited Speaker)
- Davis, CA
- June 6-11, 2010
- IAPB Congress
- St. Louis, MO
Huanzhong Wang
Hui Shen
- St. Louis, MO
- June 6-11, 2010
- 12th World Congress of the International Association for the Plant Biotechnology/
2010 In vitro Biology Meeting of the Society for In Vitro Biology- St. Louis, MO
Rick Dixon (Invited Speaker)
- St. Louis, MO
- June 22-24, 2010
- BESC Retreat
- Asheville, NC
Rick Dixon
Tim Hernandez
Luis Escamilla-Trevino
Hui Shen
Lisa Jackson
Fang Chen
- Asheville, NC
- July 4-9, 2010
- XVII Congress of the Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology
- Valencia, Spain
Lina Gallego-Giraldo
- Valencia, Spain
- July 31 - August 4, 2010
- ASPB Conference
- Montreal, Canada
Lina Gallego-Giraldo
Jian Zhao
Shujun Ge (Visiting Scientist)
- Montreal, Canada
- August 24-25, 2010
- Consortium for Alfalfa Improvement Meeting
- Madison, WI
Rick Dixon
- Madison, WI
- September 23-26, 2010
- Brock University
- Ontario, Canada
Rick Dixon (Invited Speaker)
- Ontario, Canada
- Transgenic plants containing multiple disease resistance genes
C.J. Lamb, Q. Zhu, E.A. Maher, and R.A. Dixon
Issued: US patent number 5,530,187
- Methods and compositions for determining enzymatic activity and specificity of methyltransferases
J.Noel, C. Zubieta and R.A. Dixon
Issued: US patent No. 7,384,759
- Plant fatty acid amide hydrolases
K.D. Chapman, R. Shrestha and R.A. Dixon
Issued Jan 2008: US patent number 7,316,928
- Genetic manipulation of condensed tannins
R.A. Dixon, N.L. Paiva, D. Xie, S. Sharma
Issued: European patent No. 1546335 and Australian patent No. 60/392,562
- Plant isoflavonoid hydroxylases and methods of used thereof
R.A. Dixon and C.-J. Liu
US patent number 7,442,851
- Isoflavone reductase promoter
R.A. Dixon, N.L. Paiva, and A. Oommen
Issued: US patent number 5,750,399
(International patents issued in Australia, New Zealand)
- Constitutive disease resistance (CDR1) gene and methods of use thereof
Y. Xia, R.A. Dixon and C. Lamb
Issued: US patent number 6,316,697
- Regulation of anthocyanin pigment production
J. Borevitz, X. Xia, R.A. Dixon and C. Lamb
Issued: US patent number 6,573,432
- Genetic manipulation of isoflavonoids
R.A. Dixon and C.L. Steele
Issued: US patent number 7,038,113
- Isoflavonoid methylation enzyme
R.A. Dixon and X.-Z. He
Issued: US patent number 6,878,859
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Patents Pending
- Method for modifying lignin composition and increasing in vivo digestibility of forages
R.A. Dixon and D. Guo
- Flavonoid and isoflavonoid nutraceuticals
R.A. Dixon and C.-J. Liu
- Vanillin biosynthetic pathway enzyme from Vanilla planifolia
D. Havkin-Frenkel, A. Podstolski, R.A. Dixon
- Plant N-acylethanolamine binding proteins
K.D. Chapman, S. Tripathi and R.A. Dixon
- Modification of lignin biosynthesis
R.A. Dixon, M.S.S. Reddy and F. Chen
- Methods and compositions for modifying plant metabolic pathways
L. Tian and R.A. Dixon
- Plant isoflavone and isoflavanone O-methyltransferase genes
B.E. Deavours, Chang-Jun Liu and R.A. Dixon
- Production of proanthocyanidins to improve forage quality
R.A. Dixon, L. Modolo and G. Peel
- Dr. Bikram Gill
Department of Plant Pathology
Kansas State University
Lignin pathway engineering
- Dr. Peter Darby
Horticulture Reseatrch International
Wye, UK
Hop breeding for prenyl flavonoids
- Dr. Daneel Ferreira
University of Mississippi
Oxford, MS
Natural product chemistry
- Dr. Kenneth Hensley
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
Oklahoma City, OK
Phytochemicals in neurological disease models
- Dr. Chris Lamb
John Innes Center
Norwich, UK
Molecular biology of plant disease resistance
- Dr. Greg May
National Center for Genome Resources
Santa Fe, NM
Transcriptome analysis
- Dr. David Marks
University of Minnesota
Trichome Genomics
- Dr. Joe Noel
Salk Institute Structural Biology Laboratory
San Diego, CA
Crystallography of O-methyltransferases
- Dr. John Ralph
US Forage and Dairy Research Center
Madison, WI
NMR analysis of lignin
- Dr. Lloyd Sumner
Noble Foundation
Mass spectrometry in proteomics and metabolomics
- Dr. Yuhong Tang
Noble Foundation
Genomics Core Facility
- Dr. Steven Temple
Forage Genetics International
West Salem, WI
Alfalfa biotechnology
- Dr. Xiaoqiang Wang
Noble Foundation
Crystallography of glycosyltransferases
- Dr. Zeng-Yu Wang
Noble Foundation
Transformation for cultivar development