Caroline Dean

Caroline Dean (born April 2, 1957 ) is a British botanist and molecular biologist.

Caroline Dean grew up in northern England . She studied biology at the University of York with a bachelor's degree in 1979 and a doctorate in 1983 (Investigations of genome expression in young wheat leaves). As a post-doctoral student, she worked at Advanced Genetic Sciences in Oakland , California from 1983 to 1988 . She was at the University of East Anglia (1993 to 2002 as Honorary Research Fellow and then Honorary Professor) and has been a group leader at the John Innes Center in Norwich since 1988 . There she was Associate Research Director from 1999 to 2008. She is a Royal Society Professor.

She has been married to molecular geneticist Jonathan DG Jones since 1991 , with whom she has a son and a daughter.

She deals with the flower identity gene FLC (Flower Locus C), which determines the point in time at which plants flower, triggered by vernalization , a classic epigenetic phenomenon. In doing so, she investigates the underlying chromatin dynamics in the change of epigenetic states and the quantitative regulation of FLC and, in general, the interaction of chromatin, transcription and non-coding RNA.

In 2007 she received the Genetics Society Medal and the FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award and in 2016 the Darwin Medal for her fundamental work on temperature perception and the role epigenetic factors play in adaptation (laudation). In 2018 she was awarded the UNESCO L'Oréal Prize and in 2020 the Wolf Prize in Agricultural Science and the Royal Medal of the Royal Society .

She has been an OBE (Dame Commander 2016) and Fellow of the Royal Society (2004) since 2004 . From 2005 to 2007 she was on the Council of the Royal Society. Upon admission to the Royal Society, she was recognized for excellence in studying the timing of plant development. Her work has uncovered the mechanism by which plants can remember having got through winter, demonstrated new RNA processing mechanisms that control flowering, and the molecular basis of the natural variation in Arabidopsis flowering period . Their discoveries are of great importance in the research areas of epigenetics, post-transcriptional regulation and molecular evolution. In addition, she made a massive contribution to establishing Arabidopsis as a model organism for research, as a resource for gene mapping and insertion mutagenesis, and by producing physical maps as the background for the gene sequence (laudation).

She is an external member of the National Academy of Sciences and has been a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) since 1999 . In 2008 Caroline Dean was given matriculation no. 7200 accepted as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in the section Organismic and Evolutionary Biology . In 2019 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of York, and in 2020 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

From 1999 to 2001 she was President of the International Society of Plant Molecular Biology.

Fonts (selection)

with M. Vaeck, J. Leemans u. a .: Transgenic plants protected from insect attack , Nature, Volume 328, 1987, pp. 33-37
with C. Lister: Recombinant inbred lines for mapping RFLP and phenotypic markers in Arabidopsis thaliana , The Plant Journal, Volume 4, 1993, pp. 745-750.
with V. Sundaresan, R. Martienssen a. a .: Patterns of gene action in plant development revealed by enhancer trap and gene trap transposable elements , Genes & Development, Volume 9, 1995, pp. 1797-1810. PMID 7622040 .
with R. Macknight a. a .: FCA, a gene controlling flowering time in Arabidopsis, encodes a protein containing RNA-binding domains , Cell, Volume 89, 1997, pp. 737-745
with DW Meinke, JM Cherry, SD Rounsley, M. Koornneef: Arabidopsis thaliana: A Model Plant for Genome Analysis , Science, Volume 282, 1998, pp. 679-682.
with M. Bevan u. a .: Analysis of 1.9 Mb of contiguous sequence from chromosome 4 of Arabidopsis thaliana , Nature, Volume 391, 1998, p. 485
with YY Levy: The transition to flowering , The Plant Cell, Volume 10, 1998, pp. 1973-1989
with U. Johanson u. a .: Molecular Analysis of FRIGIDA, a Major Determinant of Natural Variation in Arabidopsis Flowering Time , Science, Volume 290, 2000, pp. 344-347. PMID 11030654 .
with GG Simpson: Arabidopsis, the Rosetta Stone of Flowering Time? , Science, Vol. 296, 2002, pp. 285-289.
with R. Bastow u. a .: Vernalization requires epigenetic silencing of FLC by histone methylation , Nature, Volume 427, 2004, pp. 164-167. PMID 14712277 .
with PK Boss, RM Bastow, JS Mylne: Multiple pathways in the decision to flower: enabling, promoting, and resetting , The Plant Cell, Volume 16, Suppl. 1, 2004, S18 – S31
with I. Bäurle: The timing of developmental transitions in plants , Cell, Volume 125, 2006, pp. 655-664
with S. Swiezewski, F. Liu, A. Magusin: Cold-induced silencing by long antisense transcripts of an Arabidopsis Polycomb target , Nature, Volume 462, 2009, p. 799
with S. Atwell et al. a .: Genome-wide association study of 107 phenotypes in Arabidopsis thaliana inbred lines , Nature, Volume 465, 2010, p. 627

Web links

Commons : Caroline Dean - collection of images, videos and audio files

Member entry of Caroline Dean (with picture and curriculum vitae) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina
Website at the John Innes Center
C. Dean: How cool is that: an interview with Caroline Dean. In: PLoS genetics. Volume 9, number 6, June 2013, p. E1003593, doi : 10.1371 / journal.pgen.1003593 , PMID 23825965 , PMC 3694836 (free full text).

Individual evidence

^ Archives of the Royal Society . Dean has made outstanding contributions in the study of developmental timing in plants. Her work has revealed the mechanism by which plants remember they have experienced winter, demonstrated novel RNA processing mechanisms controlling flowering and determined the molecular basis of natural variation in Arabidopsis flowering time. Her discoveries have broad significance in the fields of epigenetics, post-transcriptional regulation and molecular evolution. Dean has also made a massive contribution to the development of Arabidopsis as a model, establishing resources for genetic mapping and insertional mutagenesis, and providing physical maps that underpinned the sequencing of the genome.
↑ Professor Dame Caroline Dean receives Honorary Degree from University of York , Universität York 2019

personal data
SURNAME	Dean, Caroline
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British botanist and molecular biologist
DATE OF BIRTH	April 2, 1957

[1] Archives of the Royal Society . Dean has made outstanding contributions in the study of developmental timing in plants. Her work has revealed the mechanism by which plants remember they have experienced winter, demonstrated novel RNA processing mechanisms controlling flowering and determined the molecular basis of natural variation in Arabidopsis flowering time. Her discoveries have broad significance in the fields of epigenetics, post-transcriptional regulation and molecular evolution. Dean has also made a massive contribution to the development of Arabidopsis as a model, establishing resources for genetic mapping and insertional mutagenesis, and providing physical maps that underpinned the sequencing of the genome.

[2] Professor Dame Caroline Dean receives Honorary Degree from University of York , Universität York 2019