Sumner Group

Research

Sumner's research interests include the development, advancement and implementation of leading-edge instrumental techniques for large scale profiling and identification of the functional products of gene expression, namely proteins and metabolites. Profiling large numbers of proteins (proteomics) and large numbers of metabolites (metabolomics) provides a high-resolution view of the biochemical phenotype. Comparative profiling provides detailed quantitative and qualitative information that is proving to be highly valuable in gene validation, gene discovery, elucidation of pathway mechanisms and providing insight into the cellular response of an organism to external stimuli. Correlation of the expression profiles with genetic information also provides a unique way of understanding gene function and interrelationships between genes. The task of profiling large numbers of proteins and metabolites simultaneously is still quite challenging. Sumner's lab is approaching these challenges using mass spectrometry (MS) coupled with advanced separation technologies. Information obtained from these experiments is very specific and highly useful in chemical identification and characterization.

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Acknowledgements

Analytical Chemistry Core Facility

Personnel

Lloyd Sumner
Associate Professor

Mohamed Bedair
Research Associate

BJ Bench
Postdoctoral Fellow

Marianni Fuego
Research Technician

Shelagh Henson
Research Technician

David Huhman
Facility Coordinator

Zhentian Lei
Research Scientist

Bonnie Watson
Senior Research Associate

Dong Sik Yang
Postdoctoral Fellow

Past Personnel
Visiting Scientists

Jiang, Q., Zhang, J - Y., Guo, X., Bedair, M., Sumner, L. W., Bouton, J. H., & Wang, Z - Y. (2010). Improvement of drought tolerance in white clover (Trifolium repens) by transgenis expression of a transaction factor gene WXP1. Functional Plant Biology, 37, 157-165 DOI:10.1071/FP09177.

Bais, P., Moon, S. M., He, K., Leitao, R., Walk, T., Sucaet, Y., Barken, L., Wohlgemuth, G., Roth, M. R., Wurtele, E. S., Dixon, P., Fiehn, O., Lange, B. M. , Shulaev, V., Sumner, L. W., Welti, R., Nikolau, B. J., Rhee, S. Y. , & Dickerson, J. (2010). PlantMetabolomics.org: A web portal for plant metabolomics experiments. Plant Physiology, 152, 1807-1816 DOI:10.1104/pp.109.151027 .

De-la-Pena, C., Badri, D. V., Lei, Z., Watson, B., Brandao, M., Silva-Filho, M.C., Sumner, L. W., & Vivanco, J. M. (2010). Root secretion of defense-related proteins is development-dependent and correlated with flowering time. Journal of Biological Chemistry, , DOI:10.1074/jbc.M110.119040.

Broz, A. K., Broeckling, C. D., De-la-Pena, C., Lewis, M. R., Greene, E., Callaway, R. M., Sumner, L. W., & Vivanco, J. M. (2010). Plant neighbor indentity influences plant biochemistry and physiology related to defence. Plant Biology, 10, 115 DOI:1471-2229/10/115.

Dobritsa, A. A., Lei, Z., Nishikawa, S - I., Urbanczyk-Wochniak, E., Huhman, D. V., Preuss, D., & Sumner, L. W. (2010). LAP5 and LAP6 encode anther-specific proteins with similarity to chalcone synthase essential for pollen exine development in Arabidopsis thaliana . Plant Physiology, May 4, DOI:10.1104/pp.110.157446 .